Trapped
by TealTerror
Summary: The essence of airbending is freedom.  You cannot use it if you are trapped.  AU
1. Chapter 1

Rated T for language and some graphic imagery.

Disclaimer: This might shock you, but _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ and its related properties are not under my ownership. Sorry if this fact causes disappointment.

* * *

Aang fought off the tears as he forced Appa onward, away from the Southern Air Temple that had been his home for all of his 12 years of life. He didn't know where he was going, or even what exactly he was doing, but he definitely knew _why_: if the monks at his temple were going to take him away from Gyatso, the closest thing he had to a father, and mold him into whatever they wanted him to become, he wanted nothing to do with them.

Memories kept replaying unbidden as his eyes turned from the sky around him to inside himself. He tried to focus on the good ones, of his days before he learned his future had already been decided for him, but he kept coming back to the bad ones: being told he was the Avatar, being rejected by his friends, learning that he'd be separated from his father and—

The sound of lightning to the left jolted Aang back into consciousness. With a start, he realized that he had flown Appa straight into a thunderstorm.

All rational thought was immediately replaced by sheer terror.

He pulled on Appa's reins wildly, trying desperately to turn around, to fly somewhere, anywhere, as long as it would get him out of the storm. Escape was the only thing on his mind.

That is, until the next lightning bolt struck him, right in the heart.

Then he didn't think about anything.

**

* * *

Trapped**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ oneshot (in four parts)

* * *

**Part One**

* * *

Azula prided herself on many things. Her power, of course—she was only 10, and was already close to being a master firebender. Then there was her intelligence, with both an amazing memory and deductive reasoning abilities far greater than anyone else her age. Combine that with her beauty (again, apparent even at 10), her physical strength, and, of course, her status as the Firelord's daughter. Put simply, there was no shortage of very good reasons for Azula to have a great deal of respect for herself.

But there was one more quality of Azula's, one quality that she considered even more important than all the others (though being a firebending prodigy came awfully close): her wisdom.

Fools would be content with Azula's lot in life, but Azula herself realized that it could all be taken away, in an instant, very easily. She had…experimented, when she was younger, and knew very well just how fragile a thing life was. If you gave a _sun_, others would take a _ri_—that's the way the world was.

So as far back as she could remember, Azula's life philosophy had been that the only way to protect yourself was to _control_ everything and every_one_ else.

Plus, it was pretty fun, too.

She was going to _love_ being Firelord.

* * *

Firelord Ozai was thinking about the Avatar. Not an uncommon event recently.

Around 95 years ago, his grandfather, Firelord Sozin, had attacked the Air Nomads with the benefit of his comet in an effort to capture the Avatar and render him irrelevant to the great conquests to come. They captured the ones who were around the right age and killed the rest, then tortured those captured about which one was the Avatar. The ones from the Southern Temple claimed that he had disappeared shortly before the attack, which was ridiculous, of course—coincidences like that only happened in _kabuki_ plays. But none of them showed signs of…Avatar-ness, for lack of a better word, so they were all killed too, and the situation was generally chalked up to Spirit World weirdness. Sozin alone had wisely kept up the hunt, with most believing he was mad, though none dared say that to his face.

16 years later, a Southern Water Tribe savage—16 years old, of course—claimed to be the new Avatar, with the bending to prove it. The girl, Hatsuna, united the Southern Water Tribes behind her and even managed to repel the Fire Nation's attacks. If she could ally the Water Tribes with the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation's glorious mission to bring proper culture to the world could have been ended permanently.

Luckily, the great, ancient Firelord Sozin concocted a daring plan, bringing with him the Fire Nation's most powerful benders, along with the Yu-Yan archers, to strike at Avatar Hatsuna directly—as his last mission. Their advantage was Hatsuna's inability to find a competent firebender willing to teach her, which left her with just water and earth. In addition, the Water Tribes' general dispersion—their 'capital' was no bigger than the Fire Nation's smallest city—left her unable to muster a significant defense. Many great Fire Nation soldiers, along with the Firelord himself, were lost, but with the Avatar dead, any hope for a worldwide anti-Fire alliance died with her.

In the aftermath of that battle, the new Firelord, Ozai's father Azulon, sent agents all over the Earth Kingdom, to catch the newborn Avatar before he or she could deal more damage. Unfortunately, the new Avatar, Shen, was born in Ba Sing Se, and learned the lessons of Hatsuna's death. He spent almost all his time holed up in the Earth King's damn palace, using his name to lift the spirits of the Earth Kingdom's damn army. Of course, his failure to even find a firebending master left him without very many options in and of itself. In any event, he died at age 65, of some sort of disease so serious even waterbenders couldn't heal him.

That was 10 years ago.

The next Avatar—the _current_ Avatar—was Fire. Some of Ozai's advisors were telling him to take advantage of this fact, to use the new Fire Avatar to take over the world once and for all.

Those people were idiots. The new Avatar was _not_ Fire. Avatars were _never_ truly a part of the country they were born. They were half Spirit, and the other half was concerned about keeping "balance" in the world, which in this case, of course, translated to "not let the Fire Nation improve humanity."

Ozai's grandfather, Firelord Sozin, realized this eventually, realized that an Avatar would be more than willing to betray his country—betray his best friend—for his precious "balance." That's why he was so concerned about getting rid of it, and why he taught his son (who in turn taught Ozai) to _never trust an Avatar._

Besides, while it was technically illegal to say so, the Fire Nation was not doing well in the war. Hatsuna had damaged them, Shen had held his ground, and the losses were starting to pile themselves up. Victory not only gave the Fire Nation honor and proof of the righteousness of their mission, it also gave them resources and spoils of war. Defeat gave them shame, doubt, and poverty. The anti-war faction in the Fire Nation was small, but it was growing with each passing year, despite Ozai's best efforts to crush it. Even if the Avatar held some special regard for his birth country, he could just ally himself with the anti-war traitors and rationalize it away. If that should happen, then Ozai would be finished.

He would not let that happen.

No matter what.

* * *

"Wanna play a game, Zuzu?"

"No," Azula's wimpy older brother said sulkily.

"Ohhh, what's the matter, my dear older brother?" Azula cooed, sliding over and ruffling his hair.

Zuko grabbed her wrist. "Nothing."

Azula put on her most innocent-looking expression. She was particularly proud of it because it had taken a while to get just right—it didn't exactly come naturally to her. "Come on, you can tell me. We're family, right?"

Zuko threw her arm aside without saying anything. Azula didn't react. "Are you upset about mommy?" she said instead.

Her brother's face had been in permanent scowl ever since their mother had…_went away_, but whenever Azula brought it up, it deepened into a glare. Which was not only fun, but very informative for Azula in _her_ efforts to construct the perfect stare of hatred. She still needed lots of data for it, after all, and Zuzu was _very_ good at hating her.

"Go away, Azula," Zuko said.

"Come on, Zuzu, don't be like—"

Zuko put his fist in front of Azula's face. Again, Azula don't react. "And you _really_ don't want to be like _that_, Zuzu. I'm being serious this time," she said.

Zuko held his position for a few more seconds, then put his hand, and head, down in defeat and turned away.

Azula grinned. "Tell me, Zuzu. How does it feel to be so powerless?" she asked his retreating figure.

Normally, Zuko became completely sulky and introverted after she beat and/or intimidated him, so Azula turned her back on him after the question, deciding on some more firebending training.

"Better than being you," she heard behind her.

She whipped her head around, but Zuko had already left the hallway, the door clattering shut behind him. Azula really wanted to torch him for that remark, but he was already gone, and her father wouldn't be happy if she destroyed a part of the palace again. So she did breathing exercises to calm down, then stalked off to the training ground.

The person chosen to be her training partner that day was _very_ unlucky.

* * *

Iroh had traveled to the Spirit World to try to meet his son again, if only to say goodbye. He failed in this, but his journeys in the Spirit World had taught him much besides. He may not have become an entirely different person, but he had changed.

Of course, the Material World had changed during his time away, too. He intentionally steeled himself to expect nothing when he returned to the Fire Nation, but his father dead, his sister-in-law missing, and his _honored_ younger brother sitting on the throne _was_ a little much to take in.

"Uncle Iroh, would you honor me with a practice duel?"

_Then again, some things never change. For better or for worse._

"Certainly, my dear niece."

Azula didn't want a duel, he knew. She had done this before—try to impress and intimidate him with her skills as a firebender, and probably learn some new moves from him in the bargain. Perhaps she had it in mind to reassert her dominance after he had been away for so long. That was the kind of person his niece was, the spitting image of her father. Not unrelatedly, they were also just about the only people he could never forgive. They had blown through too many second chances.

"Of course, my father does not approve of unsanctioned duels, so—"

"I shall not tell a soul, Azula. I give you my word," he said kindly, smiling at her.

She was lying, of course. She didn't want Ozai to see the duel because she didn't want Ozai to see her lose. She was arrogant, but she did know when she was outmatched. Her intention was to put up enough of a fight that Iroh would be scared of her _potential_ abilities, not her current ones. But it never hurt to be polite.

Azula bowed again, a picture of perfect courtesy. "You are very kind, Uncle. Is four hours after sunset tonight in the Royal Training Grounds acceptable?"

Iroh nodded.

"Then I hope to see you there." Bowing one more time, she walked away.

Iroh arrived at the grounds exactly on time. Five minutes passed before Azula entered, having undoubtedly intentionally made him wait.

"Thank you again for giving me this chance to test my abilities, Uncle," she said courteously, bowing perfectly. "It is rare for me to have the opportunity to go all-out. I do have one request, though."

"For me to not hold back, correct?" Iroh said, his voice inscrutable. It wasn't difficult to guess—that was the same request she had made last time.

"Yes," she answered easily.

They bowed to each other one final time, and the practice duel began.

Azula fired the opening volley, launching a few fireblasts at him that Iroh sidestepped easily. He could tell his niece hadn't put much power into them—they weren't even blue. They were warning shots.

He observed his niece carefully as she went through several katas, starting with the most basic attack patterns and slowly making them more complex and powerful as she went along. Iroh continued dodging them, bending a fireblast out of the way only rarely. No matter how much of a prodigy his niece was, she was still 10, and if she kept proceeding through the katas like that, she would definitely falter sooner or later.

And indeed, soon enough, when she tried switching in mid-pattern from a kata full of leg sweeps to one composed of rapid palm thrusts, her leg placement became slightly off, causing her to momentarily lose her balance. Iroh responded by balling both his hands into fists and punching them forward, bending the chi in his body into two columns of fire angled slightly downward.

But instead of wildly deflecting his attack and leaving herself open for a finishing blow, Azula caught herself immediately and swept her hands in a large circle, taking Iroh's attack and sending it screaming back at him. He moved his fists apart and sent the attack into the ground, but not before letting his surprise show for a moment.

"Did you like my feint, Uncle?" Azula asked innocently.

So she had planned that from the beginning.

"Quite ingenious, Azula," Iroh said, with a neutral expression. "Shall I see how effective your defense is now?"

Without waiting for an answer, Iroh started going through the katas himself, in the exact same order Azula did. The point of this duel was not victory, after all—this duel was about political power and control. Iroh didn't care about those things anymore, but he was not of a mind to let Azula have them without a fight.

As Azula dodged and deflected his attacks, the difference in their abilities quickly became apparent. She had more raw power than he did, but the gulf of training and experience between them was quite broad and deep. Despite the fact that this should have been obvious to her as well, Azula's cocky smile never left her lips. It might've been a mask, or a result of her thinking that she had already proven her point, but Iroh knew his niece better than that. She was planning something else.

When Iroh reached the point where Azula feinted, he switched to the palm thrust kata in the same place she did, without missing a beat. After finishing that, he went into a basic firebending stance—arms and legs bent and apart—and stared at his niece, who, despite her front, was clearly sweating.

"Uncle," she said, in a slightly hurt tone, "Even though I asked you not to hold back, you're nowhere near your best right now." She smiled, and in a way only Azula could, made it simultaneously friendly and malicious. "Unless it's true that the Dragon of the West died along with his son."

Iroh tried very hard to avoid rising to her bait, and succeeded.

For the most part.

In roughly a quarter of a second, he decided that the best way to destroy Azula's attempts at dominance was to wipe her out, totally and completely. He stomped his feet and launched himself at the girl, rocketing his body forward by forcing an incredible amount of fire out of his feet. Azula started attacking almost immediately, but _almost_ was not fast enough, and Iroh swatted her hasty attempts away with relative ease before stopping right in front of her, releasing the excess flames in a shockwave that knocked her off her feet. As she fell, he calmly pointed his fist at her, mentally preparing what he should do when she surrendered—

Except, as soon as she hit the ground, the earth _moved_ under him, and he tripped.

When he looked up, Azula was holding her fist in front of his face, wreathing it in flames, with a look of utmost contempt on her face.

"Did you just take a fall to let me win, old man?"

Iroh was unable to answer, as his brain was trying to process what had just happened. There was only one way that it could have, but…

Some part of him had always guessed. The timing was perfect, her insane talent at firebending (even for a member of the Royal Family) was explained, and, from a certain point of view, her position and intelligence made her an almost perfect candidate.

This train of thought was always stopped by the sane part of his brain, which asserted, _There's no way the Avatar Spirit would _ever_ incarnate itself in _Azula_, of all people!_

Yet here the evidence was, staring him in the face with a flaming fist.

After a few seconds, Azula sneered, returned her fist to her side, and stalked out of the training ground.

Iroh lay on the ground thinking for the rest of the night.

* * *

Things were going well for Azula recently. Her firebending was improving rapidly, while Zuko's was lagging. She was being let into more and more war council meetings, and recently, her father had even let her contribute some ideas—which let her demonstrate just how cunning she really was to the generals. Add that to the special lessons she was getting from Ty Lee and Mai, and she'd be one of the most powerful benders in the world by the time she was 13.

Whenever she thought that, she invariably thought of the _other_ "one of the most powerful benders in the world," which would then lead to her _dear_ Uncle. Iroh had been acting strange ever since their 'duel' a month ago. Or, to be more accurate, he had been treating Azula differently. And not _good_ different (i.e. awe and fear), but _weird_ different. She couldn't even really put it into words, and that was rare for her. It was like he was interested in her—not sexually (_oh Agni, _please_ don't make it sexually_), but like she was a Monkey-Rat in a zoo or something.

"Earth to Azula!" a chirpy voice called.

"_What_!" she snapped, causing the owner of said voice to leap back.

"Y-You had just blanked out for a second," Ty Lee stammered, twisting her hands and looking away. "I was worried."

Azula smiled. Aside from her incredible flexibility and near-perfect knowledge of chi blockage points, there was one major reason she kept Ty Lee around: she was the perfect servant, constantly terrified of Azula, always aiming to please her, and completely submissive. Basically, she was what Azula wanted to turn the world into.

"She's just getting stage fright before her big exam," a monotone, airy voice said. "Get ready to laugh when she falls on her ass."

"Don't be silly, Mai," Azula responded. "You never laugh."

"Ha ha," Mai deadpanned, proving Azula wrong.

Azula snorted, releasing a small bout of flame from her nostril unconsciously. "Fine, you never laugh unless it's ironically."

"Glad you understand."

Mai was Azula's _other_ friend, under her personal definition of 'friend.' She was the exact opposite of Ty Lee—unemotional, rational, and completely unafraid to make fun of Azula. She needed someone like that: despite the fact that she was near-perfect, she did occasionally make mistakes, and Mai was the only person who called her on them other than her family. Filling his top posts with yes-men was her grandfather's fatal mistake, and Azula didn't intend to mimic it. Even now, Mai's taunting was helping her to deal with the relatively small amount of stress she _was_ feeling.

Preternatural skill with knives was just a bonus.

"Alright, all done!" Ty Lee said, stepping back and shoving a mirror in front of Azula's face. Azula looked at it admiringly—the girl wasn't the brightest ember in the fire, but she knew her makeup.

Azula nodded. "Well done," she allowed, and stood up, putting out her arms and letting Ty Lee attach the traditional Fire Nation firebender armor. She was the princess, after all—following tradition was important. After that was done, she turned to the door, breathed in, breathed out, then grinned.

"In about 30 minutes, I'll be the youngest firebending master the Royal Family's ever had," she told the room.

"I'm sure you can do it!" Ty Lee enthused. "And happy 11th birthday!"

"Just don't cry on my shoulder after you fail," Mai said.

5 minutes of walking later, she was standing in the middle of the courtyard, a huge crowd around her, facing the master firebender that had been chosen for her test.

In the Fire Nation, the only way to be recognized as a firebending master was to defeat a firebending master. Azula, being not only the Fire Nation princess but also her father's pride and joy, had an additional task: defeat a firebending master so thoroughly that the entire country would know and fear her power.

The man her father had chosen was middle-aged, thin, and wiry. His name was Li (_how original_), and he was apparently a Captain or something. Her father hadn't told her much, to stop her from doing research beforehand. He was testing her today, too.

_Don't you worry, father. I've never failed a test yet, after all._

Her teacher droned on about the history of the master test and other similarly irrelevant matters, and the opening fireball was finally launched. To avoid giving the appearance of favoritism, she had been advised to let Li have the first attack. He launched twin fireballs at her, which she deflected easily, then responded with rapid thrusts and sweeps, sending a barrage of fire his direction.

The asshole dodged or avoided all of it.

Azula cursed under her breath and kept up the assault while chasing him, but after half a minute, the dynamic had already taken shape: she attacked; he dodged and countered; she deflected easily, but he was already too far away for Azula to deal the finishing blow.

His style was _really_ annoying. It was clear what his aim was: get Azula to use up her chi, then defeat her when she was exhausted. The worst part was, it was _working_. She had only ever seen Ty Lee dodge that well—and Ty Lee couldn't deflect fire. She had never dealt with this kind of enemy before, and the longer it took to figure out how to destroy him, the more worried she became about the consequences of not destroying him quickly enough.

But it was when she saw the disappointed look on her father's face that she did something that was, for her, extremely rare: enter desperation mode. She blasted the ground in front of her to create a wall of fire to protect her, breathed deeply, and started meditating. She had done this many times before, and so her positive and negative chi energies quickly became clear. Then she started pulling them apart.

By the time she realized what a stupid idea trying to bend lightning _now_ was when she had never succeeded before, it was too late to do anything but try to make it work.

She attacked her own chi with a fury, tearing it apart, and—

She missed the moment when they crashed back together. The lightning building on her hands fizzled.

Her entire body was seized by panic. And then Li dispersed her little fire wall and started charging at her.

Her complete frustration at not being able to bend lightning, combined with her anger at herself for not being able to hit this asshole, mixed together with abject fear at actually _failing_ this test, left no room for rational thought. Her instincts took over and threw her hands up to cover her face, while begging her opponent to _stop_.

And before her eyes, he did. Azula's fear-addled mind didn't give her time to question 'why' before she dove at the man and shoved her fist at his face, the way to win a practice duel.

As her emotions ebbed away and her senses returned, Azula experienced a moment of confusion, wondering why nobody was cheering.

Then her peripheral vision returned, and she understood all too well.

The earth below the man's feet had been bent, covering his legs and holding him in place.

Her first thought was, _So that's why he stopped._

Her second thought she expressed out loud. "Who the _hell_ interfered with my fight!" she screamed, making sure to put an expression of absolute fury on her face, looking around wildly.

The crowd backed away, and Azula's mind raced. The only other people here were Fire Nation nobility—and there was no way an earthbender could be anywhere _near_ the Fire Nation palace, anyway. It could've been a spy, perhaps, but if it was, why would they interrupt her master exam? Wouldn't they take the opportunity to attack her, or her father?

She couldn't figure it out. So she did what she always did when she couldn't figure something out, and asked her father. "Father?" she said, turning around. "What just—"

She was stopped short by her father's look of complete shock and abject fear. And then, her brain finally finished piecing together the events of the last 15 seconds.

She had moved her arms up, and the earth had bent up. At the same time she had been wishing, body and spirit, that the guy would stop…

_No…_

She had been born only two weeks before Avatar Shen's death was confirmed. Information out of Ba Sing Se came slowly, so the timing was…

_No._

All the children born around Shen's death had been kept under close surveillance, but none of them had shown any signs of being the Avatar. Very few of them had even shown much firebending talent. The only one who hadn't been considered was…

_No!_

"Look, father," she said, almost pleading (_almost_—Azula _never_ pleaded), "I'm sure there's some kind of explanation for—"

Her father rose from his seat, and with a stern look on his face, slowly started pacing toward Azula. Her body tensed up, and she was more terrified than she had ever been before.

He stopped right in front of her…and smiled.

Azula was filled with so much relief that she actually became weak at the knees.

_Such a meek reaction_, she chided herself. _I'll have to—_

Then her father's fist met her face, and her world went black.

* * *

It had been two months since Iroh had received his confirmation that Azula was the Avatar—in the worst way possible.

He, and the White Lotus, had been very busy for those two months. He had met with them two days after Azula's eleventh birthday/reveal as the Avatar, and they unanimously agreed on the need to break her out of her holding cell and take her someplace Ozai couldn't reach her. The Earth Kingdom was out: only Ba Sing Se was safe from the Fire Nation, and they couldn't risk letting Azula fall into the Dai Li's clutches. Besides, it was too obvious. The Northern Water Tribe seemed the most reasonable—but Ozai knew that too, and the country was too compact to offer full protection from his armies.

That left the Southern Water Tribes. Diffuse enough to make any attempt to track down the Avatar very difficult, and still powerful enough after Hatsuna to beat back all but a focused, prolonged assault. They had learned to be adept at guerilla warfare the past 60 years, and any Fire Nation soldier dreaded being sent to the South. And the fact that it was not a single, unified nation meant that Ozai would probably mostly ignore it, in favor of focusing on the North and Ba Sing Se. So with that, the strategy was decided.

It took a while to find Water Tribesmen willing to take them in, not to mention set up a plan to break into the inner sanctum of the Fire Nation palace and rescue Azula from the very depths of the building itself. But the plans had been drawn up, and the preparations were in place. All that was left now was to execute them.

As an elite strike force of White Lotus members and earthbenders attacked a specific part of the Capital, chaos swept through the city, and Iroh was given an opportunity to sneak into the place where Azula was being kept.

It was not the Boiling Rock: as supposedly impregnable as the place was, Ozai was too uncomfortable keeping the Avatar that far away from him, even though—or perhaps better said, especially because—it was his daughter. So he kept her in the Dragon's Pit instead: an underground dungeon deep below the Palace, in the lowest part of their emergency bunker. Guards were stationed there, of course, despite the White Lotus's attack.

But the Dragon of the West was not dead quite yet, and they weren't much of a match.

15 minutes had passed since the plan began when Iroh finally arrived at her cell—a bit slower than the ideal, but not terrible. He melted the metal lock, shoved the door open…

And was shocked by what he saw.

He had known, very well, his brother's attitude toward the Avatar. He knew being his daughter would likely only make it worse, not better, for Azula. He had prepared himself for anything…or at least, thought he had.

She was tied to a chair, unable to move, with a huge gag in her mouth. But on closer inspection, all four of her limbs were hideously bent, in at least three places where they shouldn't be.

He had broken them all, more than twice over.

And when she looked up at him, there were empty sacks where her eyeballs used to be.

Iroh fought the urge to throw up. He won. Barely.

_If I had acted earlier instead of waiting around for confirmation…_

He shoved that thought aside, knowing it would come back to haunt him for the rest of his life.

After he took out her gag, Azula said levelly, "So who's the brave prince, here to rescue the beautiful princess? Although I suppose I'm not so beautiful anymore."

"It's Iroh," he managed to say.

She seemed surprised at first—though it was hard to tell, given the circumstances—but nodded after a few seconds. "I see. Supporting the Avatar as a way to take down your brother and get the throne? Well, I suppose I can't complain. Anyway, I'd suggest you untie me and carry me on your back, because I unfortunately cannot exactly move on my own right now."

Iroh was still not quite able to think, so he started to nod before realizing it was pointless. He remembered he was still on a time limit, so he dashed over, untied Azula as fast as possible, and started carrying her.

"I said on your _back_, Iroh; you need your hands to firebend. Use the rope you just burnt off of me to fasten me to you. Spirits, do I have to think of everything…"

Iroh was in no mood to argue, and did as she suggested. He didn't have enough time to do a proper job of it, though, so he ended up needing to grasp her with one of his arms to keep her from falling off. Admittedly, it was better than carrying her. He started running toward the bunker's exit, trying to keep Azula as comfortable as possible.

Neither said anything for a few minutes. When Iroh was getting near the exit, incapacitating the one soldier he saw before she could report anything, Azula finally spoke up.

"Where are we going?"

"South Pole."

A pause. "Not bad. That's what I would've chosen. I assume you've contacted people there already?"

"Yes."

Another pause. "Does that include a healer?"

"I believe so."

A third pause. Iroh dreaded the next words, and he thought Azula probably dreaded asking them, but they both knew she would say them sooner or later.

"Can they heal me?" she eventually asked.

Iroh didn't answer for a few seconds, until the exit of the bunker finally came into sight.

"I believe they can. But not completely," he finally said.

Because he also knew it was pointless to lie to her.

They were almost above ground now. Only a few more seconds.

"Iroh?"

"Yes?"

"Let me be the one to kill Ozai."

He stepped out of the darkness and into the clear, midday sun.

"That's the plan," he said.

* * *

**End of Part One**

* * *

**A/N:** Inspired by the fanfic "A Twist of Fate" by Akatsuki Leader13. Or to be more specific, the "Avatar Azula" idea, as well as one other idea that's coming up in the next chapter (which will be posted in a week).

_Sun_ and _ri_ are old Japanese units of measurement (taken from China, as many old Japanese things were); the Americanized version would be "if you gave an inch, others would take a mile." A _sun_ is around 1.193 inches, while a _ri_ is equivalent to about 4295 yards. (this information stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia)

At first, I intended for this to be a oneshot, but in the process of writing it grew much longer than originally anticipated, and I decided breaking it up would probably be best. I still basically consider it one story though, to the extent that I can't even think of good names for the individual chapters (which is why I call them "parts" instead). Anyway, I've already written it all, but I'll be posting a chapter a week because I'm mean that way. So, you know, look forward to that.

Point of divergence: in this timeline, Aang gets caught up in thoughts about the elders and etc., and inadvertently flies directly into the thunderstorm. In canon, he noticed the thunderstorm, and managed to avoid the most dangerous part.

As for the master test; in canon (at least, for the purposes of this story), Azula did it later and passed easily. Her Avatar-boosted skills (as well as the declining war effort, most likely) made Ozai decide to have it earlier in this universe; however, despite all her talent, Azula is still inexperienced and emotionally immature, so it didn't turn out well (to put it lightly).

Azula being mutilated is the most disturbing thing that's going to happen in this fic. On that note, some of my more cynical readers might wonder why Ozai 'just' broke her limbs, instead of chopping them off. Is it a sign of some lingering affection for his daughter, or a result of his growing insanity, or did he actually have a good reason…? I'll leave it up to the reader to decide.

Three guesses as to whom Azula and Iroh are going to hang out with in the Southern Water Tribe. First two don't count.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

* * *

**Trapped**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ oneshot (in four parts)

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* * *

Part 2**

* * *

Iroh and Azula had exactly four conversations during their long, restless, miserable journey to the Southern Water Tribes on a rickety old boat.

The first was initiated when Azula complained about said boat—"I can't see, but I can _smell_ the worthlessness of this dump" were the exact words.

Iroh explained that a fancy ship would attract too much attention; there weren't very many ships outside of the Fire Nation Navy, and while some army officials were opposed to Ozai in principle, especially after his 'decisions' regarding Azula, none of them were willing to defy the Firelord openly. Azula acquiesced reluctantly but quickly; Iroh knew that self-interested logic was just about the only thing that could move her, but move her it most certainly could.

Their second conversation began when Iroh told her who they were going to stay with.

"_Hakoda_! You aren't talking about the Chief of the largest tribe in the South, who counts among his bodyguards the most powerful waterbender in the South? You must have misspoke, because shacking up with the most famous southern barbarian in the world is the _stupidest_ idea I've ever had the displeasure of hearing."

"First of all, Azula," Iroh began from his prepared speech, having had a good idea of what his niece's reaction was going to be, "you might not want to complain about powerful waterbenders, considering your condition. Or southern 'barbarians,' for that matter."

Azula practically _snarled_ at that, but said nothing. Iroh ignored her and continued.

"Second, my brother is perfectly capable of blanketing the entire South Pole once he figures out you're there—and he will figure it out, sooner or later. From Hatsuna on, the Southern Water Tribes became experts at hiding from the Fire Nation in order to save themselves from our raiders, and Hakoda's one of the best. Just because he's famous doesn't mean he's easy to find; quite the opposite, he became famous because he's the _hardest_ to find.

"Finally, and most importantly, you're going to have to forge some kind of alliance between both of the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom. Developing good relations with the biggest figure of the South is a necessary first step toward achieving that goal."

Once again, Azula was angry; once again, she had to bow to Iroh's logic. Smart she may have been, but no 11-year-old could match the intellectual weight of the entire White Lotus. Especially not an 11-year-old who had just went through what she had.

Their third conversation was prompted by Azula, who asked Iroh one day, out of the blue, "Where are Ty Lee and Mai?"

Iroh blinked, then answered levelly and truthfully. "Even though they were your friends, they're also daughters of influential families, so they managed to escape punishment. As far as I know, Mai went back to live with her family, while Ty Lee went to the circus."

That produced something Iroh hadn't seen in quite a while—a laugh from Azula, albeit a short, haughty one. Iroh decided it was worth the risk to inquire further. "What's so amusing, my niece?"

After a few seconds, Azula answered, her voice slow with no discernable emotion. "You'd think Ty Lee was getting the raw end of that deal, but it's the opposite. She's always wanted to go to the circus, while there are few things Mai hates more than her family. And she hates a lot of things."

There was silence for a few minutes, until Iroh eventually felt himself forced to say, "We can't get them—"

"I know, Iroh. They're both connected to me, so Ozai's going to place them under constant surveillance. Agni, I'm not Zuko, old man; I have _some_ brain cells."

And that was the end of that.

Their fourth conversation occurred at about the midpoint of their trip. Iroh had finished feeding Azula dinner and was about to leave when she said, "Wait."

Iroh paused and looked back.

"Don't you want to know why they did this to me?"

He said nothing.

Azula smiled what _had_ to be a rueful smile, but looked for all the world like she was feeling immense pleasure. "I could guess, of course, but the asshole in charge—Haka, I believe his name was—felt it necessary to inform me in person. He said they didn't want to let the Avatar reincarnate, so he was ordered to keep me alive, but only barely, and with a special eye toward preventing any kind of escape. So his first course of action, of course, was to stuff a rag into my mouth to stop me from biting off my tongue. Because death would be an escape, you see.

"Next, he apparently wanted to cut off my arms and legs, but Ozai overruled him, saying there was too much risk of death—even if they tried to cauterize immediately, I might be able to figure out some way to reopen the wounds. So he broke them and stopped them from healing, as the next-best thing. He wanted some sort of trophy, though, so he decided, hey, why not take my eyes? Just reached in and plucked them out with his fingers. He told me later he has them mounted on his wall.

"They never raped me, though. Not sure why. Maybe you have some idea?"

Iroh left the room.

Nothing else of note happened for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Before landing at the South Pole, Azula dreamed a meaningless dream. And she cried, because in it, she could move and see.

* * *

Iroh's first meeting with Hakoda, greatest of the Southern chiefs and his new protector, was in a small igloo near the South Pole's coast. The meeting had been organized by Hakoda's mother, Kanna, a member of the Order of the White Lotus. Not that her family knew that.

Iroh had never met Hakoda before, and looking at the man, he could not see the qualities that had made the man so great. There were many stories about Ice Wolf Hakoda, but before him, all Iroh saw was a tired, gentle-looking middle-aged man.

_Then again, maybe I'm not one to talk_, he thought grimly. Iroh knew from first-hand experience how quickly one could shed gentleness.

The only signs of Hakoda's power were the relatively fancy beads hung to his hair, and even those were far less than tradition would signify a Chief should wear, especially in a formal setting. His parka was worn and plain, his gloves and boots were dark and rough; he wasn't even sitting on any sort of raised dais. To his left was Kanna, with a somewhat more ceremonial-looking coat that covered her almost completely, making her look like a Bear-Pig's corpse.

Sitting on Hakoda's right, by the entrance, was his bodyguard Hama, the most powerful waterbender in the South. She was almost as famous as her tribe's Chief—she had studied under Avatar Hatsuna's prized pupil (and probable lover), and later was, for a time, the leader of a feared guerilla force that combined the best waterbenders from many different tribes. After that fell apart, the tribeless Hama had moved in with Kanna, and became the leader of _that_ tribe's guerilla force. She was too old now to engage in pitched battles directly, but was plenty good enough to defend Hakoda, and few dared to take up arms against her.

She was also known for truly and completely despising the Fire Nation and its people. Soldiers feared being her captive even more than they feared being her combatant. And her invasion of a Fire Nation village on the mainland was still spoken of in soft whispers, as well as the occasional angry drunken rant swearing revenge.

Needless to say, the meeting was not as comfortable as might have been preferred.

Still, it went well. Kanna did most of the talking—Iroh had already known she held most of the power, but he was somewhat surprised they didn't even bother pretending otherwise. Hakoda interjected occasionally, while Hama just glared at Iroh. He had instructed Azula to remain silent the entire time, and no one addressed the blind, crippled, 11-year-old Avatar. Even Hama only spared her a disdainful glance once.

They had roughly 3 years until Sozin's Comet, which would effectively herald the Fire Nation's victory, so it was agreed to make the final, go-for-broke invasion some to-be-determined time beforehand. Trusted messengers were to be sent to Ba Sing Se and the North, complete with daggers they could use on themselves in case of capture. They also requested a suitable earthbending master be searched for, although the logistics of that would be a challenge.

The biggest problem at the moment was airbending, but Kanna had a solution for that. Or at least, pretended she did—the true source of the idea had been the leaders of the White Lotus. But the other three didn't need to know that, either.

"There is a mountain that lies in the very center of the South Pole," Kanna intoned, "called Manitutshu. It is the most spiritual place in our lands. The Winter Solstice is soon. If the Avatar meditates at the base of Manitutshu during the Winter Solstice, she should be able to enter the Spirit World. If an airbender still exists in this reality, he will be there."

At the end, Iroh dared to ask Hama if she was going to heal Azula herself. The waterbender gave him a withering look while Hakoda laughed.

"Hama's the best there is at killing people, but when she tries to heal them, she tends to make their wounds worse," the chieftain said lightly. "But don't worry—I knew the situation, and brought along our best healer. The Avatar won't be wanting for medical attention."

Iroh almost winced, knowing those words and tone wouldn't exactly endear the man to Azula. But when he glanced at her, she had on the same mask of indifference she had worn the entire duration of the meeting.

Finally, the three Water Tribesmen left, Hakoda promising the healer would be there soon. After the last one—Hama, with one last glare—left hearing range, he turned to Azula and prepared for the eruption.

To his surprise, there was none. She still had the mask up.

"How was it?" he asked tentatively, though making sure to project certainty in his tone—the last thing he needed was for Azula to think him weak.

"Nothing particularly objectionable occurred," Azula answered serenely.

Iroh nodded slowly, then caught himself. It was still hard to remember that she was blind sometimes. After quietly berating himself, he said, "Indeed."

They said nothing else before the healer arrived. He looked to be about 20-something, with black hair and relatively light skin for a Water Tribesman. He happily waved Iroh out of the igloo, and Iroh obeyed, glancing at Azula only once before he stepped outside.

_If this is how cold it is close to the coast, I'm not looking forward to going further inland_, he thought, wrapping his arms around himself and doing firebending exercises to warm up.

* * *

Azula hated being blind.

Oh sure, having all your limbs broken was incredibly humiliating, but not having eyes was even worse. Throughout her life, her fath—Ozai had taught her to notice all the subtle ranges of emotion a face could produce. "The face is a window to the spirit," he had said, and he was right. Your face didn't lie, and Azula had learned well the subtle art of gleaning peoples' true characters through sight alone.

Now she would have to rely on voice. Worse, she'd have to figure it out by herself, so Agni knew how long that would take. In the meantime, not knowing others' emotions with perfect clarity was like another blindness. It left her almost immobile in social situations.

She was actually grateful that she didn't have to speak at the meeting, despite the fact that it involved the two subjects closest to Azula's heart (herself and politics, in that order). So she listened, and tried to work on analyzing voices.

By the end of the hours-long talk, she figured she had the basics somewhat figured out—having had some previous training in voice analysis helped a lot. Getting back to her old level, though, would take years, if not decades.

Terrific.

The four adults left, and someone with light footsteps entered the cold-as-shit igloo.

"Hello," a young male voice said cheerfully. "I'm Kalu, and I'll be your healer for the foreseeable future. Let's get along!"

Azula hated him immediately.

"Just see what you can do about my limbs, okay?"

The man hummed. "All right. That's gonna require touching you, incidentally. I assure you I have no untoward—"

"I know." Azula grit her teeth. "Just do it." She hated his amusement, and the way it seemed like he was almost, but not quite, laughing after everything he said.

Kalu started feeling Azula's arm, pressing down harder occasionally. After a while, he moved on to her other arm, then her legs, and the entire time, he insisted on chatting with Azula. It was annoying.

"So, little Avatar—"

"_Don't call me that_."

"What's it like being the Avatar?"

"You have eyes, I assume. Use them and guess."

He clucked his tongue. "No need to use that tone, little Avatar."

"I can use whatever tone I want when talking to some pissant barbarian!"

He started humming again. "And what if I told you I was the son of the chief?"

That line shocked Azula a little. "Isn't Hakoda's son supposed to be some nonbending brat?"

"His official son, yes. I just so happen to be a bastard."

As much as Azula hated this guy and didn't want to talk with him, she had to admit he was piquing her curiosity. "A bastard, huh? How'd that happen?"

The humming got louder. "You see, little Avatar, when a man and a woman love each other very—"

"_Not that_! Agni, I know about sex, asshole."

She thought she heard Kalu chuckle, but it was soft and fast and hard to make out. "Fair enough. About 26 years ago, before my father had become Chief, his tribe managed to capture an entire Fire Nation raiding party. One of their soldiers caught his eye, and they had what might be called an illicit—"

"Wait, you're half Fire Nation?"

The humming started up again. "Indeed. My father swears it was mutual love, though I can't deny I've wondered occasionally. In any event, it was impossible for them to stay together, of course. They eventually sent her back in a prisoner exchange, but he kept the baby. 25 years later, here I am."

Kalu didn't talk after that, and Azula considered the information she had just been given. "So is that why you're a healer even though you're a guy?" she asked after a minute. "Because they didn't want to let a half-breed learn combat arts?"

This time, Azula _definitely_ heard a chuckle. "You're thinking about the Northern Water Tribe there, little Avatar. Really, with their cities and hierarchies and rules, they're more of a country than a tribe these days. I keep saying, any day now they're going to start calling themselves the 'Water Empire' or something.

"Anyway, while the North may cling to a sexist delineation of bending duties, we in the South never really had that problem. Especially after Hatsuna. I'm good at healing and bad at battle, so I became a healer. Not so complicated.

"As to my being half-Fire Nation, that does cause trouble occasionally. But after you bring their parents, siblings, and children back from certain death, people have a tendency to treat you well. Especially when they know you're the only one who could've done it."

There was silence for a few seconds. Then Kalu withdrew his hands and seemed to back up a bit. "They sure did a number on you, huh?"

Azula was silent.

"Well, hate to break it to you, little Avatar, but we do have a problem here. After being untreated for so long, your bones started growing back in ways they shouldn't. If you want to gain much function back in your limbs, it'll take…drastic measures."

"Cut the dramatics and just tell me, asshole."

She could practically _sense_ Kalu smiling. "I'd have to break them again, then set it up so that this time, the bones heal properly."

A chill started heading up Azula's spine. She could still remember the day she was imprisoned, two months ago, with perfect clarity. Her mind would never let her forget the day all control had been stripped from her, and she had been left a doll.

She gulped, and tried her hardest to stop from sounding nervous. "Then do it."

More silence. Azula's heart was beating hard in her chest.

Eventually, Kalu said, "It would be very painful, of course, and I can't do anything about that. Besides, while I've never done something like this before, I would guess that you'd be lucky to regain 80% functionality in your limbs. And you are still just 11, little Avatar. I should probably ask your uncle."

"No!" she screamed. "It's my body, my choice! I don't care how much it hurts, and I don't care if it's not perfect; going through life not being able to move is infinitely worse! Now _do it_!"

Time stretched on. In her excited state, Azula didn't even bother to try to measure how long it was.

Finally, Kalu chuckled again, low and soft. "I kinda like you, little Avatar. Okay, I'll do it. But I imagine your uncle is going to come running when he hears your screams, and won't be very happy, so I'd ask for your help in explaining the situation. If the Dragon of the West kills me, your recovery will go much worse, I promise."

Azula would've rolled her eyes, if she had had them. "I'm not an idiot. Just do it."

She heard Kalu stand up without another word. Azula grit her teeth and prepared.

* * *

Iroh was contemplating things as he trudged along the icy wilderness. Then, suddenly, he realized it had been a while since he last meditated on the nature of reality, and even longer since he had had a good cup of tea, and much longer than that since he had last felt comfortable.

Then he kicked himself and returned to contemplating his and the world's current situation, with only a small glimmer of depression. All that could wait.

* * *

"Hi, Azula!"

Azula grit her teeth. "Katara."

It turned out that the Southern Water Tribes really were _tribes_, surprisingly enough. They all lived together, and since they kept their lives by not staying in one place very long, they moved together, too. And Hakoda's tribe was _large_—at least 500 people, and that wasn't counting the constant scouting parties that were wandering all over the place. From what Azula could gather, Hakoda's main task was just organizing the logistics of it all, while his mother did the actual decision-making, leader-like stuff.

Azula wasn't exactly keen on dealing with so many barbarians in her state, so she tended to spend most of her time with the chief, as was her right as the Avatar. Unfortunately, that brought its own problems; namely, having to deal with the chief's children.

"I'm here to feed you lunch!" The girl giggled.

"I figured," Azula grumbled.

His son, Sokka, was kind of surly and distrustful. Which suited Azula just fine. His daughter, Katara, on the other hand…

"I talked to Kalu this morning. He said you'll probably be able to move your limbs by next week! Isn't that great?"

"Wonderful."

Hakoda's wife, in her infinite wisdom, had decided to let Azula and Katara be by themselves for the first few hours they met, to "bond." Katara proceeded to rattle off every half-baked story she had ever heard about the Avatar. Not wanting to antagonize her protector's daughter, Azula smiled and nodded, while secretly wanting to kill herself.

Ty Lee was bad enough, and she at least knew when to shut up.

To be fair, Katara got better after she finished gushing about the Avatar. She then happily took over all of Iroh's old duties, including feeding and…cleaning Azula. Which Azula was grateful for; being helped that way was humiliating, but it was slightly better when it was a 10-year-old girl instead of your ancient uncle. And the girl was pleasant enough, generally speaking. Plus, she was apparently a waterbender training under Hama herself, which might make her useful in a few years' time.

But after a while, the girl's practically worshipful attitude was starting to grate on her. Which, when she first realized it, surprised Azula—she _loved_ it when people worshipped her. But eventually, she managed to figure it out.

Katara wasn't worshipping _her_. She was worshipping the _Avatar_. And to Azula, those were two _very_ different things.

"So, you wouldn't believe what Sokka said today…"

* * *

A month after they arrived, Hakoda's bastard said that it was safe to take off Azula's bindings and let her move.

"She'll be sluggish for a while yet, and I'll still need to be on hand, of course," he had said, "but I figured the little Avatar wants control of her limbs as soon as possible, no matter how little it is." He had given Iroh an odd look as he said that.

To be honest, Iroh hadn't trusted Kalu ever since he broke Azula's limbs without consulting him. But the man did know his job.

And he was right about Azula—she had practically gushed at Kalu when he took her restraints off.

Well, not really, it wasn't even particularly close to gushing. But closer than he had ever seen her get before.

Then she actually started walking.

Her face was screwed up in concentration, as she took her first step in over three months. And as she firmly planted her left foot in the ground, she displayed something close to pure joy.

She took a second step.

And crashed to the ground.

Kalu and Katara instantly ran at her, but Iroh waved them off. He did know his niece, and he knew she _would_ hurt anyone who tried to help her right now.

She stood up by herself, slowly, a bruise starting to form on her cheek. The joy was gone, replaced by concentration again.

It didn't come back.

* * *

Soon after her restraints were taken off, Azula began her journey to that mountain the old woman had talked about, Manitutshu—early enough so that it was certain she'd make it there before the Winter Solstice. She was escorted by Iroh, Kalu, and Hama's top student Naya. Katara had also insisted on going along, of course. Hakoda and the others were needed with the tribe, so they stayed behind.

_Good riddance_, Azula thought.

Because they were heading so far South, they were using one of the few carriages the tribe had. Made out of wood pilfered from the Fire Nation, it was pulled by two yak-oxen through the harsh snowstorms that seemed to flow continuously in the world's bottom.

The land was an inhospitable hellscape. But Azula had to go there, because she was the _Avatar_. She couldn't even practice firebending, for risk of burning the stupid wood.

So she let Katara show her some basic principles of waterbending instead. It wasn't exactly easy—water was her opposite element, and she still had to go soft on her limbs. But she managed to melt ice and freeze water soon enough…until Naya caught her, and promised various horrible retributions if the practice continued.

"There is a _reason_ Avatars learn the elements in order. If you don't learn Air first, you'll put too much will into your Water, and you'll just end up hurting those around you."

_That's the _goal_, idiot_, Azula grumbled to herself. But they were soon forced to spend all their time in the carriage by the worsening weather, and Azula wasn't able to sneak off to practice again.

Azula's annoyance at not getting to learn the elements immediately was starting to itch, and it was getting worse every day. Being able to bend all four elements was the only _good_ thing about being the Avatar. Plus, having potential powers at her disposal that she was forbidden from using…

_Complaining won't help. They'll have to let you learn them soon enough anyway, if they want to live at least._

But every day spent freezing under layers of clothing, with people she hated, unable to see, the rational part of her died just a little bit more.

* * *

"You know what you are supposed to—"

"Yes, I _know_, Iroh; you've told me a thousand times. Meditate, go to the Spirit World, find an airbender, get him to teach me as many things as possible."

"Yes. Remember, we will—"

"Take care of my body, and I can find it either in the carriage or back with the tribe. Now just shut up and let me concentrate on my breathing."

Iroh looked at his niece, draped with at least 10 mole-bear skins, huddled at the base of an impossibly tall, snow-covered mountain. He swallowed, and nodded. Then berated himself, and said, "All right."

* * *

"Welcome to the Spirit World!"

"Unh," Azula grunted, as the world slowly came into focus. "Who are—

"Holy shit, I can _see_!"

Azula looked around wildly. The faces of her escorts (_That's what they look like_?), the ice mountain behind her, all the snow, some tattooed bald boy wearing a robe—

"Who are you!" she yelled, pointing a finger at him. "And why can I see!"

The boy looked thoughtful for a second, then nodded. "I'll answer your second question first. You're in the Spirit World right now. See, that's your body right below you."

Azula looked down and saw herself. She involuntary flinched.

"Now, _technically_ the Spirit World exists outside of space and time, in a sort of parallel dimension overlapping the Material World." As he talked, the boy was getting more excited; he started gesturing, and his eyes were growing steadily brighter. "Note, this has a bunch of strange consequences, if you think about it. Like, if we're outside of time right now, how come we're still in sync with the passage of time in the Material World? I think—"

"_Why can I see!_"

The boy took a step back and coughed. "Er, right, sorry." He cleared his throat, then started speaking again, once more becoming increasingly excited with each word he spoke. "All spirits are, in essence, one. What you're seeing right now isn't the true nature of the Spirit World, it's how _your_ spirit interprets it. Nobody really knows why human spirits interpret it with their senses; I think probably, we just spent so much time in the Material World that that way of perceiving reality just became a habit, you know what I mean?"

Azula tried to glare at him, before realizing she couldn't. "No," she said, but distractedly.

"Um, well, basically, since the entire Spirit World is already a part of you, you 'know' it all already." Now he was getting _really_ worked up. "You're just seeing it because you used eyesight for the first 11 years of your life."

Azula was barely paying attention to him; she was looking for some kind of reflective surface.

"But! You need to keep in mind that while distinction, as in any kind of distinction of course, may not exist _ultimately_, it does exist _practically_. There are differences between spirits in terms of practical existence, just not ultimate nature. This is well-known, and is why it's possible for us to interact like this. However! I started thinking about it, and realized, if distinction doesn't ultimately exist, then neither does the ultimate/practical distinction, and when you realize _that_—"

Azula screamed.

She could see, all right. She could see her eyeless face staring back at her through the ice.

Needless to say, she turned away from that sight quickly.

"Um…" the boy said, stepping closer to Azula. "Are you okay?"

"Shut up!" Azula screamed. "Just who are you? What do you want?"

The asshole kid actually _beamed_. "My name is Aang. I was Avatar three incarnations before you. I'm also your Spirit Advisor. Nice to meet you!"

* * *

Ozai raged.

He had been counting on Azula to succeed him after he had conquered the world. But then that fell through. So, stupidly, he had tried to teach Zuko, only to learn his son's worthlessness all over again.

"Is this because of Roku's blood!" he raged. "Any of his descendents are weaklings or traitors, is that it? Even in death, that man bedevils this family!"

_To think I was once in love with that woman…_

Shortly, though, Ozai calmed down. After all, he was still a relatively young man, and he was planning on seeing many more sunrises.

He called a retainer in.

"Send this message," he said through the Fire Curtain. "Though the Firelord still grieves the loss of his first wife, he has realized it is time to move on. While honoring the late Firelady Ursa's memory, he has decided to start searching for a new bride. Any noble lady between the ages of," a short pause for thought, "13 and 29, please come to the…"

**

* * *

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**End of Part Two**

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* * *

****Author's Notes: **To Aang, the Spirit World is like penguin sledding, only _every day_. (it should be noted that I also got the idea of Aang's role from Akatsuki Leader's fic, although it's rather significantly changed from the way he did it)

I think it's important to note that all of my viewpoint characters have somewhat flawed views of the world. Please take their judgments with a grain of salt, if you will. Particularly Azula's. And, well, Ozai's of course.

Incidentally, all of the stuff Aang is talking about is basically copied straight from Buddhism (certain abstract branches of Mahayana, to be specific). I didn't even let him get into the _real_ cool stuff. Look into it if you're interested, and really, why shouldn't you be?

"Manitutshu" is the name of an actual Inuit spirit mountain, and it was also the best name I could find from 5 minutes of Wikipedia searching.

Sorry it's kind of taking a while for plot to kick in. The main conflict only really begins in the second half because I'm a crappy writer who takes way too long to set up my central conflict in a pseudo-short story.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 2.

* * *

**Trapped**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ oneshot (in four parts)**  
**

**

* * *

Part 3**

* * *

While he was flying her across the South Pole on his flying bison (_I am so glad great-grandfather killed all of these things_, Azula thought, while also wondering if it was possible to throw up in the Spirit World), Aang refused to explain much about himself, promising "all will become clear after we arrive," or some such thing. Instead, he prattled on about his personal half-baked theories on the nature of reality and the causes of evil and which animals were most fun to ride on. Some part of her brain (or whatever the Spirit World equivalent was) told her she should act interested to get on the kid's good side, but it was quickly overruled by her disgust with him, his bison, the Spirit World, and life in general. So she said nothing and watched the ground instead, deciding to take advantage of this aerial view and get to know the terrain a bit better.

With a start, Azula realized something strange. For the past few months, the one thing she had wanted above all else—even killing Ozai—was her eyesight back. She would've chewed off her arms and legs to get one eye back. Now, here she was, able to see again…and she wasn't any happier. If anything, she was even more depressed.

Why _was_ that?

Azula hadn't yet figured it out by the time Aang arrived at what appeared to be the former Southern Air Temple. Signs of the 97-year-old battle could still be seen in scorch marks on the wall, old suits of armor, and the occasional skeleton. Azula felt an odd sort of pride (which she didn't share with her Air Nomad companion, of course) as she followed Aang inside the building.

She may have been the Avatar, and she may have hated the Firelord, but she was still Fire Nation.

They soon arrived in a big room that housed a huge number of statues. Looking around, it soon became clear that they were the previous incarnations of the Avatar.

_My previous lives._ But even as she thought it, she couldn't accept its truth.

"Hey, why don't you have a statue here, kid?" Azula asked for some reason.

"No one was around to carve it," he answered darkly.

_Oh yeah, invasion. Stupid question._ Azula berated herself silently for her momentary lapse in intelligence. "Right. Sorry."

"It's okay. It's been 97 years, and everyone involved is dead. I'm over it."

_I'm sure._ But she knew better than to press the issue.

They walked up several flights of stairs and through many more statues until they finally reached the end. Azula idly observed the depiction of what she assumed to be the first Avatar—a rather ordinary-looking female Air Nomad—when her attention was drawn to two Avatars who were actually alive.

Well, not _alive_ alive—

_Damn, I hate the Spirit World._

One of them was an old, bearded Fire Nation man whom Azula assumed was Roku. Sitting across from him was a young Water Nation woman, her wild dark brown hair splayed around her head in all directions, one blue eye turned and regarding Azula coldly.

The other eye was behind a huge scar that covered half her face. It was like someone had cut her with a battle-axe. Not that surprising for a Southern barbarian, but still.

_So that's Hatsuna, eh? I had heard she was ugly as sin._

"So, you're finally here, eh?" Hatsuna drawled. "Welcome to the Spirit World, new Avatar. Sorry there ain't no welcome party."

Hatsuna wasn't even pretending to be happy to see her. Azula could fairly easily imagine how deeply her hatred of the Fire Nation, and its nobility, ran.

Not that it mattered what some barbarian thought, of course.

Azula was much more interested in Roku. Her father—_Ozai_—had told her many stories about him and his betrayal, usually followed by a spirited speech about how the Fire Nation's honor proved its cultural superiority, or something to that effect. Now that Azula was the Avatar and Ozai had made himself badly in need of a killing, she was willing to re-evaluate her opinions regarding the last Fire Nation Avatar.

"So, why did Air Nomad Kid bring me here?" she asked Roku.

"It's Aang!" Aang told her cheerfully. Azula ignored him.

Roku looked at her levelly, his face betraying no emotion. "We are here to talk about you, and the best method for winning the war."

Azula sat down, and nodded. "By the way, shouldn't the guy who was Avatar before me be here?"

A very loud snort drew Azula's attention, and she saw Hatsuna looking away, with an expression of utmost loathing. "That damn coward didn't care about the world enough to even bother sticking around to see how it turned out." Then she spat.

Confused, Azula looked back at Roku, who spoke levelly again. "Most people who die do not end up in the Spirit World, Azula. Avatars typically do, in order to advise their successor on all matters concerning spirits. This is because, while mediating between the Material and Spirit Worlds is usually the Avatar's main duty, there are precious few people who can actually teach them how to do it. When their successor dies, they typically move on.

"However, sometimes, if a person is weighed down by regrets and attachments to the world, their spirit does end up here, often in quite a pitiable state." It was almost impossible to make out, but Roku's voice did falter a bit at that part—but he overcame it and continued without pausing. "But for various reasons, when an Avatar laden with guilt and regret dies, we inhabit the Spirit World in a form quite similar to how we were when we died. Normally, the next Avatar is able to fix whichever problems we couldn't, and allow us to pass on. However…"

"I was Shen's Spirit Advisor," Hatsuna spoke up. "Every time I talked with him, he came up with a new bullshit excuse as to why he had to keep his stupid ass in Ba Sing Se. Then he dies, and what does he say?" Hatsuna made her voice high-pitched, and said, "'It seems like the next Avatar won't be lacking for Spirit Advisors, so I'm moving on.'" She stood up and stamped her foot on the ground, in irritation.

Roku cleared his throat. "Shen was constantly resisting the Dai Li, and if he had died, then—"

"And stop defending him, you fire asshole!" Hatsuna roared at Roku. "No matter what he said, he was a _coward_, and you know it! The fact that he didn't stay here is proof enough!"

Roku stared calmly at the woman, almost daring her to continue, while Aang made feeble attempts to calm them down.

Azula rested her chin in her palms, and tried her best not to call all of them every name she knew.

_This Spirit World trip is going to be _so_ helpful, I can already tell._

* * *

The rest of the conversation actually went better than Azula had expected. They didn't talk much about the Material World's political situation, having little knowledge of its details—most of it revolved around strategies to help her master the elements, and general moral and spiritual advice. Azula discarded the latter as worthless, but took the former to heart.

Then she started taking lessons from Aang in airbending.

As Azula found out quickly, it was impossible to bend in the Spirit World (she asked how his bison could still fly, then cut him off when he started giving a speech about essences and subjectivity and crap like that). Which meant he mostly just showed her the basic movements, as well as prattling on about the Air Nomads' stupid philosophy.

"Airbending is a defensive art," he said as they practiced a kata that would, supposedly, blow an enemy away. "The Air Nomads practiced nonviolence—they refused to harm anything, even insects. That was how they gained happiness."

Or: "A master airbender matches his movements to his opponent's. Ultimately, you have to realize that there is no distinction, and give yourself up to the world. By doing that, you gain enlightenment."

Or: "The Air Nomads lived in monasteries to gain freedom from the world. They saw airbending as an extension of their meditation—to separate themselves even further from the world of desires."

One time, Azula had finally gotten fed up with him, and asked him how the Air Nomads could be free if they didn't do anything they wanted to do. He just blinked, then said, "Freedom isn't about following your desires. It's the opposite—it's being able to resist your desires, separating yourself from the material world to escape the cycle of reincarnation." Azula declined to press the point further.

It was really stupid. Firebenders didn't insist on lecturing about abstract bullshit pointless speculations about the nature of reality. They didn't talk about nonviolence while practicing something whose only use was killing an enemy. And they _definitely_ didn't give sanctimonious speeches about 'desire' and 'freedom.' They focused on the apparently radical method of teaching you _how to bend_.

Besides, how the hell was Azula supposed to be free when her entire life was being decided by forces she couldn't control?

But she kept her mouth shut. She wasn't even allowed to learn waterbending before she at least got the basics of airbending down, and pissing off Aang would definitely be really stupid.

She still hated him, though.

* * *

Approximately one week of Material World time passed before Roku, Hatsuna, and Aang agreed that Azula should return.

"There's only so much you can do without actually trying out the forms," Aang told her.

"Now that you've been here once, it will be much easier for you to contact us again," Roku added. "There are numerous places in the South Pole that are spiritually charged, and as the Avatar, you should be able to know them instinctively. Meditate at one of them, and Aang can train you more."

"And if you want to know why some places in the Material World are closer to the Spirit World than others—" Aang began, but was cut off by Hatsuna, to Roku's relief.

"Just train hard and kick the Firelord's ass. Can you do that, Azula?" Hatsuna asked, her eye blazing.

Azula was clearly trying to look impassive, but Roku could see the hatred and determination in her face. "Yes."

As Aang took off with Azula to return her to her body, Hastuna spoke up. "I don't like her."

Roku opened his mouth, paused, then said, "Admittedly, she is not the ideal—"

"She wants to rule the world in her father's place," Hatsuna interrupted. "Although in her current state, she'd likely be happy with burning it to the ground. I almost think the prospect of her as Avatar is worse than Ozai winning the war."

"You don't mean that."

"I said _almost_. But…" Hatsuna sighed, and lay down on her back. "At least she really wants to kill the Firelord. So she's better than Shen, I suppose."

Roku stayed silent.

* * *

When Azula returned to her body, Iroh and Kanna were there to ask her what had happened, in detail.

She could've lied, but what would've been the point?

After they were pleased with her explanation, they left her alone to train her airbending.

The first day, she couldn't do it at all. But that was natural, she figured—her only sifu was a damned spirit, after all. Getting the hang of a new bending art based only on memories of stances would take time.

By the time the first week was over, and she _still_ couldn't perform airbending at all, Azula was starting to get worried. Even with Katara as a teacher, she had managed basic waterbending in only a few days.

After that, she devoted almost her entire life to practicing airbending. She went over the forms Aang had shown her, again and again, for hours at a time.

It didn't work. The wind wouldn't respond to her at all.

She couldn't _control_ the wind at all.

* * *

Zuko stared at the deck of the Fire Nation warship, trying not to think about the past. As always, he didn't succeed.

When his sister revealed to the world that she was the Avatar, Zuko wasn't entirely sure what to think. He didn't like her—she was mean, cruel, and the focus of his father's attention—but he _did_ know that she would never betray the Fire Nation, even if she was the Avatar. The way his father treated her, especially some of the rumors Zuko heard nobles whispering about from time to time, didn't sit right with him.

And then, two months later, Uncle Iroh, who had always been very kind to Zuko, betrayed his country and disappeared, taking Azula with him. Zuko missed him a lot.

On the other hand, with his sister gone, Zuko's father started spending much more time with him—training him in firebending, teaching him about politics, even just eating dinner and enjoying conversation with him. It was the fulfillment of all of Zuko's dreams.

Even if the training always left him in pain, the teaching always seemed a little wrong, and his father always seemed to be wearing a mask during dinner. Zuko shoved those thoughts to the same part of his brain that whispered to him about his uncle and sister.

As long as his father was proud of him, none of that mattered.

But even Zuko could tell that his father was growing increasingly angry with him, even if he didn't admit it to himself.

Then, a few weeks ago, about a month after Uncle left, his father ordered him to join the Fire Nation army, as a regular soldier, to "learn what war is like first-hand." But coupled with his announcement about seeking a new wife, even Zuko could see the underlying implication.

He was a failure. His father was trying to get him out of the way for whatever child he had next.

_No! I can't think like that!_ Those doubts he also shoved to the back of his mind. His father wasn't getting rid of him, his father was _testing_ him. Sending him to the South Pole, where everyone knew Azu—the Avatar was, was proof enough. His father had already promised a noble title to anyone who could bring the Avatar back alive. If Zuko could do that, he knew he would prove his worth, and his father would accept him.

Everyone else had abandoned him. Only his father was left. Zuko would _not_ disappoint him.

* * *

"Hi, Azula!" Aang waved, a huge grin plastered on his face. "How goes training?"

Azula stalked over, wordlessly, and grabbed his tunic, hoisting him up into the air and doing her best to make her non-existent eyes blaze.

"What's the mat—"

"What the hell kind of teacher are you!" Azula raged, shoving the hundred-year-old kid to the ground to punctuate her remark.

Aang rubbed his head. "Did something—"

"_Yes_! It did! I can't airbend for _crap_!"

Aang sat up and moved his hand from his head to his chin. "That's strange. I'm sure I related the Air Nomads' philosophy accurately—"

Normally, Azula would've tried to control her rage. But having spent the better part of a _month_ trying and failing—failing _over and over again_—to use a power she _should've_ been able to control, Azula was not exactly in a charitable mood. "_Enough_ of your stupid philosophy. This time, would you mind teaching me the _proper_ katas? You might have forgotten, but we are kinda in a _war_ here!"

Aang's hand went to the back of his head this time, and he grinned again. "I'm pretty sure I got those right, too, but we can go over them again if you want."

Azula moved her nose up and down—the alternative she had come up with to rolling her eyes. As far as she knew, nobody had noticed the correlation yet, which made it a lot of fun to use. "Yes, I very much _do_ want that."

* * *

The South Pole was cold.

Not that Zuko should have expected anything different, of course. It _was_ at the bottom of the world. Still, though—compared with the Fire Nation's warm-to-hot climate, he constantly felt like his entire body was frozen, up to his spirit.

The hunt was cold, too. The Southern Water Tribes knew every detail of the terrain, and being the honorless savages that they were, they had no compunction in killing Fire Nation soldiers in sneak attacks and night raids, then skittering away before they could be countered.

Even worse, while there might have been serious inter-tribe conflicts, they were _still_ united as one against the Fire Nation, even though Hatsuna died over 80 years ago. That woman had been a thorn in the side of the Fire Nation for all of four years, but her influence would apparently last a century.

Maybe if the Fire Nation committed its entire army to the South Pole, they could find Hakoda's tribe—but the Northern Water Tribe (despite being technically neutral) and Earth Kingdom would immediately pounce if they did that, which would defeat the entire point. So Zuko and other unfortunates were consigned to the cold weather and cold hunt, likely until Azula decided to leave the place herself.

In this kind of environment, the only way Zuko could survive was by freezing his mind, too.

_I have to capture the Avatar. Nothing else matters._

* * *

"So."

"Yeah."

In another one of her brilliant moves, Katara's mother had decided that Azula and her son weren't interacting enough (their relationship being limited, generally, to one-word semi-grunts). She also seemed to think that Azula's gradually worsening disposition was due to her general withdrawal from human contact, instead of the fact that she _couldn't bend air_.

Thus leading to Azula accompanying the boy on his afternoon adventure.

"This is really exciting."

"Don't I know it."

Which was hunting. An otherwise enjoyable activity made less so by the fact that it involved trudging through snow for an hour, spending 5 minutes setting up a trap, then waiting around for two hours and counting. Again, in the snow.

Azula _really_ hated Water Tribe savages.

"Why are you doing this again?"

"To prove I'm a man."

Azula snorted. "So what, you're a man in the Water Tribe if you can survive being unbearably cold and bored for a day?"

"Hey, I don't make fun of your stupid customs, you don't make fun of mine."

"_Stupid customs_! Like what?"

"I hear you guys kill yourselves to 'regain your honor'."

"I will have you know that that went out of fashion over a century—"

"So you admit it was stupid, then?"

Azula _really_ wished she could glare at that precise moment.

* * *

A blast of fire from the left. Blocked with a sword.

Another from the right. Zuko cut it in half with the other sword.

A feeling of heat from behind him. Zuko jumped over it backward, using the surprise to sweep a wall of flame at his attacker. Without even bothering to look at its result, he turned to his second opponent and delivered a savage barrage of fire, not letting up until he saw the surrender signal.

The exhausted fire nation soldier ran up to him while panting. "I didn't recognize the kata you just used, _Prince_ Zuko," she said accusatorily, making sure to put an extra emphasis on 'Prince.'

_Because she knows I'm only a Prince in name now_, the part of Zuko's head that doubted said. He ignored it again, deciding to just think of her as a bitch.

So Zuko glared at her and sheathed his broadswords. "That was no kata. It was just an attack." He didn't feel like talking, so he walked away, listening to the crunch of the snow under his boots.

Azula was always better than him at firebending. But that was fine—if Zuko could show that hard work would beat talent, his father would surely take him back.

_So far, 6 hours of training today._

…_Not enough._

Zuko found a deserted stretch of snow and started practicing his broadsword technique again.

* * *

Randomly, during another of her futile attempts to bend air, Azula suddenly realized why she wasn't happy being able to see in the Spirit World.

The only reason she had been able to enter the Spirit World so easily was because she was the Avatar. So it was the Avatar Spirit that had let her see again—it was the Avatar Spirit that her sight _depended_ on.

It was like, after ruining her life and taking away all her control, the Avatar Spirit had deigned, out of _noblesse oblige_, to give her the one thing she wanted above all else—on its own terms, of course.

In retrospect, it was rather obvious.

* * *

The mood around the Fire Nation camp was despondent.

Recently, they had finally managed to capture some Water Tribesmen. It had been half a year after Zuko joined them, and much longer than that since some of them had been searching. Everyone was excited that they might finally have an excuse to leave the Agni-damned piece of ice once and for all.

One of the Water Tribesmen bit his tongue off and killed himself. They stuffed a rag into the mouth of the other one and broke her jaw, but that made interrogating her almost impossible. Having their hopes brought up only to see them go down in flames was too much for the soldiers to take, and some of them began whispering that they should take out their frustrations on the captive.

Normally, Zuko would have tried to stop them. The Water Tribesmen may have been savages, but they didn't deserve _that_. However, he was well aware that most of the other soldiers there despised him, for having grown up in the Imperial Palace, and going against them would have damaged his standing among them permanently.

So when he saw the soldiers walking toward the captive's tent, he went far away, and relegated it to yet another matter he refused to think about.

_The only thing that matters is capturing the Avatar._

* * *

Two years.

Azula breathed in, moved her hands together, breathed out, and slashed the air.

It had been two years since Azula had found out she was the Avatar. Which meant it was a year and nine months since she started trying to bend the air.

Azula breathed in, focusing all her attention on her mouth, and breathed out, trying to create a larger amount of wind than normal.

When Azula had begun learning firebending, it had taken her all of 10 minutes to learn her first kata.

Azula breathed in, breathed out, and swung her leg in an arc. Then screamed in frustration when she felt fire erupting from it.

She hated her life.

* * *

After over a year of fruitless searching, it was a random fluke that finally led Zuko and the party he was with to Hakoda's location.

One of them, Atsuko, had been by herself, tending to personal matters, when she happened to notice a water barbarian out of the corner of her eye. She followed him to a large collection of igloos that was _extremely_ well-hidden, in a valley and snowstorm, then made her way back to the rest of them to report.

They spent an hour getting ready, then trudged toward the location, elated with the possibility of finally being able to leave this hell on earth. Not to mention the promise of riches, titles of nobility, and for Zuko, reconciliation with his father.

Naturally, they were attacked before they got within fifty _shaku_ of the place.

While suffering from a momentary shock, the Fire Nation soldiers soon realized that the water barbarians had made a miscalculation. While they might have allowed Atsuko find their position to draw her comrades out, they probably didn't realize exactly _how_ many comrades she had, or how well they fought. Zuko, in particular, managed to take five Water Tribesmen out himself, and soon, they were back on track toward Hakoda's main base.

The raid was brutal. Zuko saw Fire Nation soldiers burning down not only igloos and enemy warriors, but also women and even children. He did his best to ignore the scenes of carnage as he rushed toward the largest structure there was, ten other Fire Nation soldiers right on his heels.

All of them wanted to be the one to capture the Avatar.

In their way was the Ice Witch, Hama.

The others set about trying to fight her off. Zuko knew better. There was no way Azula would just be sitting in that igloo, waiting for death. She'd have started trying to escape, long before.

So Zuko broke off, and after a moment of thought, started running in the direction that would take him out of this valley the fastest. Most likely, that was the route that Azula had took.

And luck was with him once again. Barely thirty seconds passed before Zuko saw a flash of blue, and ducked in time to avoid a blazing azure fireball that flew above him.

He looked up, and pulled anger up out of the conflicting storm of emotions he felt.

"Azula!"

* * *

As soon as Hakoda realized he had screwed up with the Fire Nation raiding party, he ordered Iroh to take her away, while he and Hama guarded their retreat.

Iroh grabbed her, but Azula struggled free and demanded to be allowed to escape on her own two legs. Iroh, probably sensing that an argument would lead nowhere fast, acquiesced, and ordered her to follow.

She did that for a few minutes; then, when she figured Iroh's attention was momentarily lax, she ran the other way.

She knew it was insane. She was blind, and still not in peak form—by all rights, she should be running away. But she had just spent more than a year and a half failing to master the powers that lay dormant within her, and she was determined to get back _some_ measure of control. And if killing Fire Nation soldiers was the only way she could do that, then that's the way it had to be.

At least she had become much more adept at perceiving her surroundings through her other four senses these last few years, and soon, she heard footsteps rushing toward her. Choosing to assume that they were from an enemy, she launched a fireball at whoever it was.

Half a second later, she heard a voice call "Azula!" A voice she recognized.

She felt a whirl of emotions, then ducked instinctively when she sensed heat in front of her, and a bolt of fire grazed her cheek. "Zuzu?" she called out, still not quite believing it.

"Turn yourself in, and I won't hurt you," Zuko said.

Now _that_ produced a very clear, comforting emotion: indignation. "You think you can take me?" she laughed, and started launching a barrage of fire at where he was.

After a second, she heard a sound to her right. Turning, she barely managed to deflect another fire blast aimed right at her. She was about to retaliate, then paused, realizing she wasn't sure if he had moved again or not—then barely deflected another fire blast.

She was sweating now. She _knew_ she was better than Zuko, but while she had gotten better at fighting blind, there was too much ambient noise and distracting clutter for her right now. So many sounds were assaulting her from so many directions, she could barely even guess where Zuko was at any one moment. And even when she could attack him, without knowing what the result was immediately, she was completely unable to follow it up, which essentially let Zuko block and attack at his leisure.

Desperation started rising with her, right alongside contempt for herself, for feeling desperation against _Zuko_, of all people. She started casting attacks around wildly, but that only made it even more impossible to hear where Zuko was. Her deflections increasingly turned into blocks, which increasingly turned into semi-blocks, and she wasn't even counterattacking at all anymore, and she could feel tears of shame rolling down her cheeks—

Then she felt a force crash into her chest, and she was knocked into an igloo, hitting her head hard on the ice.

_I hate you_, she thought at everyone, especially herself, and then she lost consciousness.

* * *

Zuko looked at the prone body of his sister, and after a moment, lowered the leg he had used to kick her. Even he could barely believe what he was seeing.

_I did it…I actually beat Azula!_

But something was seriously wrong—she was _weaker_ than he had remembered, despite being two years older. In a slight daze, he walked over to Azula and turned her body face-up, in preparation for carrying her back to the Fire Nation.

Then he saw her face, shouted, and stumbled back, falling hard onto the snow.

He had heard rumors, that his father had done that to her, but he had never—

_He had no choice. She was the Avatar_, he began to tell himself, when he heard someone gasp.

His head snapped up, only to catch a foot that rammed into his face.

Then he saw black.

* * *

When Zuko woke up, he saw a white ceiling. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was probably the top of an igloo.

Groaning, he sat up, only to see another sight that probably shouldn't have surprised him, but did anyway.

"Uncle?" he gasped.

His uncle, seated at his bedside, nodded grimly. "It's been a long time, Zuko."

Zuko blinked. He knew that there was probably a good explanation for this, but his brain wasn't quite able to provide it yet. So he asked, "What are you doing with the Water Tribe?"

"I am aiding your sister," he responded immediately.

When he saw his uncle again, Zuko's stomach began to twist. But Uncle's recent statement brought him a flash of anger, which Zuko clung to. "You're aiding the Avatar!"

"That is _why_ I am aiding your sister," Uncle said evenly.

"_You're a traitor_!" he screamed.

"And I saved your life."

"You—" Zuko began, than stammered as he processed those words. "You what?" he eventually managed to choke out.

"The Water Tribe normally treats its prisoners well. Not this time, however—not after this raid, not when you killed their mothers, sisters, and children. I had to use my personal influence to convince them to spare you, and they only acquiesced because you are so young. Nevertheless, you do owe me your life, my nephew."

Zuko blanched, and inadvertently scooted back a bit. He had always known Uncle as a gentle, easy-going man—he had barely any memories where the man didn't have a large grin on his face, or raucous laughter on his lips. Now, he could see no joy in his uncle, only grim determination.

After a minute, Zuko mumbled, "What do you want from me?"

"For now? To come with me." Startled, Zuko didn't resist as his arm was grabbed by Uncle and he was dragged out of the small room he was in and across the large igloo.

"Hakoda didn't like the arrangement I made for the location you would recuperate, but I managed to convince him that it would be safer if I kept both of you close to me."

"What are you—" Zuko began, then stopped when Uncle grabbed his shoulder and shoved him into another small room carved into the igloo.

There was another bed there. His sister was sleeping on it.

With grim fascination, he stared at the empty spaces where her eyes used to be.

"That wasn't all my brother did," his Uncle said after a few seconds. "He broke all her limbs, too. Left her unable to see or move for two months. If he had had his way, she'd have been in that state the rest of her life."

Zuko started shivering. He gulped, and grabbed onto his arm in an attempt to steady himself. It didn't work. "What do you want from me?" he repeated, weakly.

Wordlessly, Uncle walked to a chest, from which he drew out one of Zuko's broadswords.

"Here," he said, shoving the sword into Zuko's hand. It was all he could do not to drop it. "Use this to cut off her arms."

Now he _did_ drop the sword. "What!" he shouted.

Calmly, Uncle bent down and picked up the dropped sword. "If you cut off her arms, it will be impossible for her to learn any bending. That would be very beneficial to your father, wouldn't it?" His Uncle's calm voice started breaking now, becoming bitter and sarcastic. "I'm sure he'd be quite _pleased_ with you." And Uncle handed the sword back to him.

Zuko looked down at his sword, the steel reflecting his face, filled with shock and confusion. He looked at Uncle, who folded his arms and showed only contempt. Then he looked at his sister, the Avatar, looking so small and fragile, sleeping like that.

His shoulders shook. Tears started welling up in his eyes. He tried to say something, though he didn't know what, but a lump in his throat was blocking out all words.

He looked again at his uncle, the only person aside from his mother who had truly felt like family. He felt like he was being torn in half. "Uncle, I—" he croaked, "I don't—"

Finally, Uncle's expression softened, he extended his arms, and Zuko dropped the sword and ran into his embrace, crying out two years' worth of doubt and loneliness.

* * *

It took a few seconds for Azula to figure out she had regained consciousness. Even two years later, she hadn't gotten used to being blind.

She slowly sat up, memories starting to bubble up. The long, miserable trip to the South Pole. The slow, grueling trip to the Spirit Mountain. The many, many fruitless attempts to learn airbending.

The months she had spent in prison, unable to see, unable to move, all her dreams crushed with nothing to hold onto except hatred for her father.

Losing against Zuko.

Her father smiling, before betraying her.

She blinked, grateful that there weren't any tears building in her eye sockets.

"How are you, Azula?" she heard Iroh ask.

She let a few seconds pass in silence. Then, she said, "Leave me alone."

After a second, she heard Iroh stand up and walk out of the room.

**

* * *

**

**End of Part Three**

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** Yay, the story picked up!

A _shaku_ is another old Japanese unit of measurement. Wikipedia says it's equal to about 11.93 inches.

Only one chapter left! I wonder what's going to happen. Well, not really, since I already know what's going to happen, but…you know what I mean.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See Chapter 3.

* * *

**Trapped**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ oneshot (in four parts)

* * *

**Part 4

* * *

**

Iroh knew it would be hard to convince his Water Tribe hosts to let Zuko stay with them. He had built up a lot of good will with them over the years, but "what to do with the Firelord's son" was almost as important a matter as what to do with the Avatar, and they wouldn't let him decide it all by himself.

Or, at least, that's what he assumed.

However, everyone knew that Ozai had done everything short of disowning the boy, and certainly had no intention of letting him succeed the throne. Even Zuko knew that—had known that; he just only recently was willing to admit it.

Hama still wanted to kill him, of course, but Hakoda and Kanna were willing to listen to Iroh. So he told them his plan.

After Ozai was defeated, someone had to take the throne, or the Fire Nation would fall into anarchy. Azula couldn't do it—she was the Avatar, and the Avatar could not directly involve themselves in politics like that.

They could install someone unrelated to Ozai. However, the Fire Nation royalty's bloodline had been unbroken since the country's founding; the general populace would not accept someone who was not descended from the sun spirit, Amaterasu.

Which left Zuko.

Kanna decided to let Iroh try his hand at taking care of the boy. Hakoda agreed, and Hama bit her lip and went along.

* * *

As usual, Kalu was humming as he checked Azula's condition. Even after she recovered from her broken limbs, Hakoda still insisted on giving her regular check-ups.

And Kalu _still_ insisted on engaging her in pointless conversation.

"You've been withdrawing yourself even more lately, little Avatar."

Like that.

"I still can't airbend, in case you haven't noticed. Chatting isn't going to help with that."

"You sure? I don't think the Air Nomads were all shut-ins."

"Shows what you know. They lived in those temples in order to 'escape from the world.'"

Kalu started up his damn humming again. "I suppose I'll have to defer to your expertise, little Avatar."

Azula grunted. Despite his words, though, Kalu spoke up again soon.

"Your brother's an interesting fellow. He barely talks, either, but his and your grumpiness seem to come from different sources. Do you have any insights on this matter?"

Azula snorted. "Zuko's always been a loser. Don't ask me to understand the way his brain works."

Kalu's humming got even louder. "I'm not sure you know how _anyone's_ brain works, little Avatar."

_That_ brought Azula up short. After a few seconds, she asked suspiciously, "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

The asshole laughed, and _ruffled her hair_. Azula grabbed his wrist, and he said amicably, "Just that you have trouble looking at the world through others' eyes."

"Why _should_ I?"

"Exactly! Just like that. Well, check-up over. Your body, at least, is fine." He hummed loudly, not letting her get another word in, and left the igloo.

_I _really_ despise that half-breed_, Azula fumed.

* * *

"It's kind of amazing, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Azula grumbled.

"Well," Katara enthused, combing Azula's hair, "after all this time, for you to meet your brother again…it's just really touching, you know?"

Azula bit her lip. "Yup, I'm so incredibly happy that my brother's back."

Naturally, Katara missed her sarcasm, and barreled right through her words. "He's a lot different from you, though. I mean, you're always so composed and in control, while he's—"

"An idiot?"

Katara giggled. "That's one way to put it, I guess."

Azula's stomach, where Zuko had kicked her, started throbbing. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure. Um…how's airbending—"

Azula clenched her fist. "Not that."

There was a pause. "Well. Um. Do you want to go somewhere today?"

Azula moved her nose up and down. "Sure. Let's see. We can walk around the snow, or wander the ice, or, ooh, I know! We can freeze our asses off in a blizzard!" She raised her voice to a high pitch. "Hm, they're all _such_ good choices, I just _can't_ decide!"

Katara harrumphed. "You don't have to be so pissy about it, Azula."

Azula's mental supports had been slowly weakened during the past few years. Losing to Zuko had made one snap. Now, a second one crumbled. "What the _fuck_ do you know about _anything_, you naïve little wench!" she screamed, kicking Katara away.

From far away, she could feel that her leg had been wreathed in flames, and some part of her brain registered Katara gasping and groaning in pain, but she paid them no mind. "For the past two _years_, I've had to listen to your pointless whining about _nothing_," she growled. "Let me teach you a little something about the world, girl. _I_ am the princess of the Fire Nation, not to mention the Avatar, and _you_ are the spawn of some pissant southern barbarian who has delusions of grandeur. In a just world, you'd be groveling at my feet, _not_ torturing me with brainless blather. From now on, don't talk to me unless you have something of _value_ to say. Then again, you wouldn't know value if it punched you in the face, so just stay away from me, and we'll both be much happier."

She gauged where the girl was lying by her crying, stepped over her, and walked out of the building.

* * *

The next day, Iroh found her while she was once again trying, and failing, to airbend.

"I know what you're going to say, so shut it, old man," Azula grumbled. "I don't want to hear you going on about friendship and kindness."

After a few seconds, Iroh spoke. "These people are your only allies, Azula. You—"

"They're _not_ my allies!" Azula roared, blasting a fireball into the sky. "They're the _Avatar's_ allies!" Azula raised her other hand to unleash another fireball, but her wrist was grabbed before she could.

"You _are_ the Avatar, Azula," Iroh said, his tone brooking no argument.

Azula argued anyway. "No, I'm _not_! The Avatar is an immortal spirit from Agni-knows-where that infects people whenever its previous host dies, and wants 'balance' in the world, whatever that means. _I'm_ an evil bitch who used to be princess of the evil Fire Nation, all I want is to rule the world, and _everybody_ here would kill me if I didn't happen to be lugging around some stupid fucking Avatar spirit!" She turned in the general direction of Iroh and tried to morph her facial features into some sort of a glare. "And you'd be the first in line, wouldn't you? Dear Uncle."

Neither of them spoke.

After a minute, Iroh let go of her wrist and walked off. Azula spent the rest of the night raging against the world while telling herself it was firebending practice.

* * *

Zuko was doing well, Iroh thought; he was becoming more and more like his old self. He was going out into the tribe occasionally, though he mostly just quietly observed other people. He was even starting to develop a good rapport with Sokka.

Katara was doing less well. She was very broken up about what Azula had done to her. As far as Iroh could tell, it was only her sense of duty to the tribe that kept her from taking revenge on the Avatar; for now, she seemed to be mostly nurturing her hatred for the other girl. Not that he could blame her.

Azula…was bad, and getting worse by the day. By now, she had almost shut off all contact completely. She refused to meet with anyone by choice, and any time she didn't spend training she spent lying on her bed.

But the worst part was, she was right about him. He wouldn't necessarily _kill_ her if she wasn't the Avatar, but he certainly wouldn't particularly care what happened to her. Pretty much everyone else felt the same way about her. She was a horrible person—and because of that, he had no idea how to help her.

Zuko looked down, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

There was no answer. After a few seconds, he shrugged, and open it.

Azula was lying on her bed, as she was doing more and more these days. He briefly wondered what she thought about there, all alone.

"Hey," he said hesitantly.

No answer.

"So," Zuko said. He gulped. "How's, um, life going?"

Silence.

"Well, I just came here 'cause I thought, well…Sokka and I are going hunting today. Would you like to, maybe, come with?"

Very slowly, Azula raised her head, and turned her head toward him, giving him a nice look at those empty eye sockets. He involuntarily flinched back, and had a moment of guilty gratitude that she couldn't see him do it.

"What are you doing?" she asked very slowly.

Zuko blinked. "Huh?"

"You hate me," she said, still speaking slowly. "So why are you here?"

Zuko blinked again, going over what she had said in his head. "Well," he said as a placeholder, trying to think, "I don't hate you, and, I'm worried about you?"

Mentally, he kicked himself for that rising intonation.

Then, Azula started giggling. Zuko gaped at her, and didn't react as she said, through the giggles, "You are such a liar. Of course you hate me; I've made your life hell for the past seven years. You tried to bring me in chains to Ozai just a few months ago. Damn, Zuzu, did you really think I'd fall for that?" Suddenly, she stopped giggling, and her tone turned dark and hateful. "What are you after?"

Zuko gulped again, looked to the side, and tried to mentally steady himself. "Look," he said, "we've never had a good relationship. But, I've never _hated_ you. And I did try to capture you, but that was when—" pause, breath, "—when I still wanted Father to accept me."

There was a long silence after that. Zuko dared a glance at Azula, but she was still in the same position, eyes…or where her eyes should have been…fixed directly on him. After a while, she finally responded.

"You really are stupid. You still want Ozai to accept you, you know. It's just you want Iroh to accept you too, and he happens to be closer right now. All you care about is how others perceive you."

"That's not true!" Zuko shouted, all hesitation forgotten. "I heard things, and saw things, when I was with the army those two years! I know the kinds of things the Fire Nation does—my father does—to those he conquers! And…" he looked down again. "I know what it's like, to be the center of father's attention. It…it wasn't what I thought it would be like. It was like he was trying to make me into someone I'm not."

"Can't blame him," Azula snorted.

_Now_ Zuko was angry. "You're one to talk!" he shouted. "I used to be these peoples' enemy, but you know what? After a few months, I'm friends with their chief's son, and they let me wander their grounds with barely a second glance! Do you know what they say about _you_? You've been here two years, _and_ you're the Avatar, but you managed to chase away the one person who was willing to put up with you! So who are _you_ to talk about me like that?"

_This_ silence was much shorter.

"Get out," Azula said, her voice low.

Zuko complied.

* * *

It had been almost a year since the last time Azula visited the spirit world. Given that her meetings with Aang were devolving into him repeating the same movements over and over, it was decided further meetings were useless until she managed to begin airbending.

Roku was becoming more worried each day she didn't show up. Hatsuna, her faith in the young Avatar long gone, was her usual ornery self. And he could never tell what Aang was thinking.

Then Azula showed up again, riding with Aang and Appa. Briefly, Roku almost drowned in hope, but one look at Aang's face crushed it.

For the first time in as far as Roku could remember, Aang looked uncomfortable.

After Appa landed, Azula hopped off, and immediately stalked toward Roku until she was staring directly at him with that eyeless face.

"I just have one question," she said. "Is it possible to get the Avatar spirit out of my body?"

Roku looked at Aang, who shrugged helplessly. _So she asked him this question too, I see_, Roku thought, and sighed inwardly. Ignoring Hatsuna's snort, he looked at Azula, and did his best to make his face and voice kindly.

"Azula," he said. "The Avatar spirit isn't _in_ you. It _is_ you. There is no way to remove it. Even if there was, it would result in your death."

They looked at each other for several long seconds. Then, for a brief flash, he thought the girl was about to attack him. But, just as quickly, that feeling passed, and she just nodded.

"Understood." Azula turned around, and walked back to Aang. "Take me back to my body, Aang."

With one last sad look at Roku, Aang nodded, and took off with the young Avatar on Appa.

"She's crazy."

Roku looked over at Hatsuna, who was lying down on her back. "Why do you say that?" he asked evenly.

"Because it's true," Hatsuna said, with the air of someone explaining something to a particularly slow child.

Roku kept his manner calm. "You don't know that—"

"Sure I do, and you do too. If we don't do something, she really is going to destroy the world." Hastuna looked at him, and her face was as serious as he had ever seen it.

Roku paused, choosing his words carefully. "What do you suggest we do?" he finally decided on.

Hatsuna let out a deep, long sigh. "I have no clue," she grumbled.

Roku turned back, looking at the spot Appa had been. He didn't dare voice it in front of her…but in truth, he agreed with Hatsuna.

And, like her, he had no idea what to do.

* * *

It happened on a particularly cold morning.

Azula didn't know why it happened. Nothing special had occurred for at least a week. Sure, she failed to airbend, but she had been failing to airbend for two years and three months. There really was no reason for it to happen after _that_ failed attempt, on _that_ particular morning.

But it did anyway.

The last string holding Azula up finally snapped.

She curled up into a ball, and began to cry.

_Dammit, dammit, dammit,_ she cursed, punching the snow-packed ground. _My life is destroyed, my father betrays me, everything I ever wanted goes up in smoke, and I can't even do what every other Avatar managed to do. _Tears were streaming down her face. _What the hell does it mean anyway, "the essence of airbending is freedom"? You tell me that, and then tell me that I have to "give myself up to the world" to gain "enlightenment." How am I supposed to—_

And then it hit her. A stupid, crazy idea that was likely to get her killed.

But, at that moment, she didn't really care about that last part.

Azula stood up, wiped the tears away from her face, and began running.

* * *

Of all the people, Sokka was the one who first noticed Azula was missing.

* * *

After a while, the cold had seeped into her legs such that Azula had to stop running. But she _was_ still a firebender, if nothing else, and it would take a long time for the freezing temperature to get to her, as long as she was careful.

So she was trudging along the white wilderness, wind blowing around her, heading in the direction of that Spirit Mountain she had visited so long ago.

If Azula was being honest with herself, she wasn't exactly sure why she was doing this. It probably arose out of all those stupid Air Nomad beliefs Aang had talked about—"the essence of airbending is freedom," "the Air Nomads separated themselves from the world of desires," "in order to airbend, you have to give yourself up to the world," and all that crap. It had rolled around in Azula's head, and ultimately, her brain had spat up "isolate yourself and battle nature." There was also some half-formed idea that some feature of that Spirit Mountain place might help her.

Or maybe she just wanted a clear goal again, with the means of accomplishment already open to her. What that goal was didn't particularly matter.

Either way, she was far from any semblance of civilization by the time her rational mind re-asserted itself.

Right when Azula found herself in the middle of a blizzard.

At which point she quickly became very, _very_ afraid.

* * *

Hakoda was still traveling among the tribe's roving bands, to make sure they were in good shape and doing what they were supposed to be doing. So without him, the emergency meeting was left with only Iroh, Zuko, and Kanna—as well as Sokka, who insisted on attending, Kya, who heard about it from Sokka and was apparently quite worried, and Katara, who Iroh didn't know why she showed up.

Zuko and Sokka quickly volunteered that they had investigated, and there were clear footprints showing that Azula had left the camp, apparently willingly. Of course, she then seemed to walk into a blizzard, which erased any further hopes of tracking her.

"I have no idea why she did this," Zuko muttered, shaking his head.

"'Cause she's a crazy bitch," someone said.

All eyes turned to Katara.

"What?" she said, arms crossed. "She is."

Kya seemed disturbed. "Katara, I know you two had a falling out—"

"_She attacked me_! For _no reason_!" Katara screamed. "And that's not all—she made it _quite_ clear that she was only _pretending_ to be my friend for _two years_! If she wasn't the Avatar, she'd have been out of here _long_ ago!"

Kya looked much more uncomfortable, and Iroh was forcibly reminded of a conversation he had had with Azula that he'd just as soon forget. Luckily, Sokka decided to take up the role of responder. "Look, Katara," he said, "I'm no fan of Azula, and even Zuko's told me more than a few horror stories about her. But…she _is_ the Avatar, you know?"

"Until she dies," Katara countered.

There was a sharp sound, and the girl recoiled in shock, a bruise starting to form on her cheek.

It took a second for Iroh to realize that he was the one who slapped her.

* * *

Azula did several deep breathing exercises to try to calm herself down. Either they worked, or she convinced herself they worked, and she started to ascertain her situation.

She was somewhere in the South Pole. Not far from Hakoda's current temporary camp, but she figured she had been running for a good long while, so it wasn't a short distance, either. And she had no idea about her _exact_ location.

Oh yeah, and she was in a blizzard, with no supplies.

She was finding it _very hard_ to hold onto her rationality. But she managed it, barely, picked up her feet, and starting moving in the direction where she figured she probably came from.

* * *

Zuko had no idea what he should think at that moment, after Uncle slapped Katara. Unconsciously glancing around, to gauge the others' reactions, he noticed that Sokka's mother was barely managing to withhold Sokka from moving in on Uncle angrily, while his grandmother remained silent, staring intently at the scene in front of her.

Katara, after a moment of shock, rounded on Uncle in force.

"What was that for!"

Uncle himself seemed in shock, staring at his hand. Zuko closed his eyes, cleared his throat, and summoned up his courage.

"What did you mean by that, Katara?" he asked her.

She turned to him, her expression unreadable. "I meant, when she dies, she'll no longer be the Avatar. Right?"

"That is not true, Katara," the grandmother interrupted. "The Avatar is continuous, from this world's beginning to its end. Azula is and forever will be one part of the Avatar's existence."

Katara opened her mouth, closed it, and looked away.

"She betrayed me," the girl eventually managed to say. "I thought she was the world's savior, and my friend. But she just pretended to be those things. Instead, she's…I don't even know what she is."

"She is my niece," Zuko heard Uncle say, and when he looked at him, Uncle had closed the fist that slapped Katara, staring at it with grim determination. "She is blood of my blood. And even had she not been the Avatar, I would not want her to die."

He looked at Zuko, with an expectant expression. Zuko nodded, then looked at Sokka.

Sokka still seemed angry, but he sighed. "I'll get mad for my sister later," he said magnanimously. "For now, let's go save the world's savior."

Sokka looked at Katara. She wiped at her eyes, and nodded glumly.

They couldn't alert the tribe at large—most of them were young, old, or infirm, and thus unable to brave the raging blizzards; besides, it wouldn't be good to let Azula's wild trek be widely known. So, in the interests of time as well, they only picked up Kalu, and the seven of them alone headed out to look for Zuko's sister.

* * *

It was cold. Really cold. So cold that Azula's firebending wasn't close to being enough to fight it off. So cold that she even became tired of shivering.

As she placed one foot in front of the other, for whatever twisted reason, her brain started spitting memories at her.

"_Airbending is a defensive art," he said as they practiced a kata that would, supposedly, blow an enemy away. "The Air Nomads practiced nonviolence—they refused to harm anything, even insects. That was how they gained happiness."_

Happiness? If you didn't harm anything, you'd just end up being trampled by everything. No wonder the Air Nomads were wiped out—they probably gave the Fire Nation soldiers lotuses as they were being mowed down.

_After a few seconds, Iroh spoke. "These people are your only allies, Azula. You—"_

Allies, huh? Those were useful temporarily, but in the end, you couldn't trust anyone you didn't control. That was the _first_ lesson Father—Ozai had taught her. And he was right about that, if nothing else. Allies were only good insofar as you could turn them into friends, and friends were only good insofar as you could turn them into servants.

_Now Zuko was angry. "You're one to talk!" he shouted. "I used to be these peoples' enemy, but you know what? After a few months, I'm friends with their chief's son, and they let me wander their grounds with barely a second glance! Do you know what they say about you? You've been here two years, and you're the Avatar, but you managed to chase away the one person who was willing to put up with you! So who the hell are you to talk about me like that?"_

Zuko was always so stupid, as long as Azula knew him. "Friends"? Did he honestly think any of the Water Tribesmen wanted him there? He was only there because _Iroh_ wanted him there, and none of the others had the guts to oppose him. He was always utterly dependent on others; this was just the most disgustingly extreme example in recent memory.

"_A master airbender matches his movements to his opponent's. Ultimately, you have to realize that there is no distinction, and give yourself up to the world. By doing that, you gain enlightenment."_

Speaking of dependence, Aang elevated it to some kind of philosophical ideal. Giving yourself up to the world and letting it control you was "enlightenment"? What were you enlightened to, your own stupidity and powerlessness? Azula could almost see the Air Nomads "giving themselves up to" the Fire Nation soldiers that were slaughtering them.

"_Well," Katara enthused, combing Azula's hair, "after all this time, for you to meet your brother again…it's just really touching, you know?"_

Katara was always saying stupid stuff like that. She really was a born follower, just like Ty Lee. But at least Ty Lee had known she was a follower, or let Azula teach her that she was one. Katara seemed to find it her mission to 'improve' every life she came across. Like she really believed that she could save everyone by herself, or something. It would've been comical if it wasn't so annoying.

"_And stop defending him, you fire asshole!" Hatsuna roared at Roku. "No matter what he said, he was a coward, and you know it! The fact that he didn't even care enough about the world to stay here is proof enough!"_

Now that Hatsuna woman, she at least knew the way the world worked. It was a battle of all against all for control of the world, the stakes the ability to do what you wanted. Hatsuna knew what she wanted, and was willing to take it. But she failed, and even now she was reaping the consequences of that failure. She wasn't able to control the world as much as she wanted to, and so she lost. A mistake Azula would not repeat.

_The asshole laughed, and ruffled her hair. Azula grabbed his wrist, and he said amicably, "Just that you have trouble looking at the world through others' eyes."_

Azula had thought that Kalu, too, was somewhat rational, but that conversation destroyed what little respect she had for him. What did he mean, she didn't know how other peoples' minds worked? She knew that perfectly well—they always did whatever they could to accrue benefit for themselves, unless they were stupid naïve chattel (which, admittedly, much of the world was). Why should she "look at the world through others' eyes" when others were so idiotic?

"_Even though they were your friends, they're also daughters of influential families, so they managed to escape punishment. As far as I know, Mai went back to live with her family, while Ty Lee went to the circus."_

Azula still had somewhat fond memories of Ty Lee, the Perfect Servant, though they were tied up with a good deal of contempt for the girl as well. Mai was similar to Azula in many ways, but she just couldn't play the game as well as Azula could—not to mention, she was just a noble while Azula was the Princess. That's just the way the world worked: some people are born as the cat, and some as the mouse. Nobody could change that.

_Azula said levelly, "So who's the brave prince, here to rescue the beautiful princess? Although I suppose I'm not so beautiful anymore."_

"_It's Iroh."_

As time went on, Azula had understood Iroh less and less. She had assumed he was trying to overthrow Ozai as revenge, and to become Firelord himself, but now she wasn't so sure. It was like he had risked his life and abandoned his status out of some general ethical belief that Ozai "should be defeated," but she had a hard time believing he could be so stupid as to give allegiance to a _principle_, of all things. And then there was his taking Zuko under his wing, which Azula didn't even _try_ to understand for fear it would rot her brain. She was seriously starting to wonder if he was going senile.

_Azula grinned. "Tell me, Zuzu. How does it feel to be so powerless?" she asked his retreating figure._

_Normally, Zuko became completely sulky and introverted after she beat and/or intimidated him, so Azula turned her back on him after the question, deciding on some more firebending training._

"_Better than being you," she heard behind her._

Who the hell was he to say something like that? At the time, she was better than him in every way possible. She was smarter, stronger, more attractive, more influential, and was _definitely_ next in line to become Firelord, no matter what their birth order was. How could he _ever_ want to be himself and not her?

"_Freedom isn't about following your desires. It's the opposite—it's being able to resist your desires, separating yourself from the material world to escape the cycle of reincarnation."_

The Air Nomads really didn't understand anything, did they? They thought they were 'free,' when they were really shutting themselves up in their monasteries and following an insanely strict set of rules in order to please abstract principles that didn't actually exist. In order to be free, you had to _control_ things. To be 'completely free,' you had to control _everything_.

_That's right_, Azula thought to herself. _I have to control everything. I _need_ to—_

Her legs stopped moving, as her brain ground to a halt.

_I need to control everything?_

_Need?_

She had no idea why it finally made sense to her. And when it did, she had no idea why it once _hadn't_. It was like the entire world was completely new and different.

_Does that mean, all this time, I've just been controlled by my desires? My desire for control…has controlled me? The more I fed it, the more trapped I became?_

All her memories flowed together and swept across her mind. Her knees buckled. She would've cried, except her tears were frozen in her eyes, and she would've laughed, except the wind had stolen her voice.

_I couldn't even control my own needs_, she thought, spasms of mirth rocking her exhausted body. _All this time, I've…I've…_

She turned her head skyward, and let out a scream filled with more emotions than she could name.

* * *

They had quickly split up, with instructions to return to camp if they felt they wouldn't be able to go on for much longer. So technically, Iroh had no idea whether or not someone had found Azula by now. But they probably hadn't—the South Pole was large, huge swaths were uninhabited, and the blizzards were raging.

Ice slowly sank its way into Iroh's joints and hopes. He fought it off as much as he could. Azula had to be here _somewhere_, and there's no way he could live with himself if—

And then he saw it.

A huge pillar of brilliant light, shooting into the heavens.

Before he knew it, Iroh was running toward that light, all exhaustion forgotten. He had no idea how long he ran, but eventually, he came close enough to see it.

Azula was floating in that pillar, arms outstretched, the same brilliant light shining out of her eye sockets.

Then she looked down, and for one second, Iroh could swear she _saw_ him.

The pillar was gone with a flash, and Azula flew down, throwing up enough wind and snow to send Iroh flying back, landing down hard. When he picked himself back up, he was staring right at her, at those brilliant beams of light that used to be her eyes.

And he finally believed, _truly_ believed, that she was the Avatar.

Then she pointed at him, and for a blink, Iroh thought she was about to kill him.

Then, abruptly, the light faded, and Azula started falling. Iroh moved just fast enough to catch her.

* * *

Several days later, Iroh was at her bedside when she awoke, along with Kalu.

"How are you doing?" Kalu asked, all trace of amusement gone from his voice.

"I feel all right," Azula responded, after a few seconds.

Kalu nodded. "That's good. You had almost frozen to death. Normally, you'd be almost immobile for a couple of weeks, but because you're a firebender you should be up and about again soon enough. Still, just to be safe, I'd suggest staying in bed for at least three days."

Azula made no response.

Kalu looked at Iroh with a pleading expression. Iroh gave him a tight nod. Apparently pleased, Kalu stood up.

"Well, I think I'll leave you alone with your uncle. See you soon, little Avatar."

Iroh spent a few minutes just looking at Azula, after he left, before speaking up again. "Can I trust you not to do anything strenuous if I'm not here?"

"How much of an idiot do you think I am?" she said, in a flat voice.

Iroh shook his head, uncaring that she couldn't see it. "In that case, would you prefer I left you alone?"

She was silent for a few seconds, but as expected, she said, "Yeah."

Iroh nodded, again uncaring that she couldn't see it. "Very well. I'll see you later." He stood up, and was walking out of the igloo, when he felt it.

A gust of wind that ruffled the hair on the back of his head.

He turned around in shock, which only deepened when he saw what his niece was doing.

She was laughing. Not a displeased snort, an ironic snicker, or even a pleased chuckle. She _guffawed_, hands clutched to her sides and tears rolling down her cheeks.

He had never seen her so happy in his life.

He stood there, in shock, for several minutes, until the laughter subsided, and Azula wiped the tears from her face.

"We need to make new plans soon," she said, smiling.

* * *

It wasn't easy. Worldviews don't change overnight, even after you realize that they're fundamentally flawed.

She didn't immediately reconcile with Katara, or Zuko. She didn't start making overtures of friendship to Sokka. She _definitely_ didn't start thinking of Iroh as some kind of substitute father figure, or even really treat him with more respect.

She still really wanted to kill Ozai, even after realizing that it was probably just to confirm that she wasn't dependent on him.

But she was, at least, starting to rebel against her own wishes and desires.

Besides, the other important things would come with time.

After all, she was the Avatar.

* * *

**END**

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** So, in case you haven't noticed by now, while the plot was inspired by "A Twist of Fate," the actual theme and story arc were inspired by every single "Azula is redeemed" fanfic ever written. This is my interpretation of Azula, as well as my interpretation of what it would take to get her to be something resembling a good guy. Friendship, at least, definitely ain't gonna do it.

I would like to apologize that you didn't see Azula meet up with Toph. The plot arc revolved around airbending, so unfortunately, she just wouldn't have fit.

I would also like to apologize if this last chapter came off as a bit Katara-bashing. I swear that wasn't the intention, but I needed a foil for Iroh to realize his own character development, and I was inspired by the fact that, well, Katara doesn't take too kindly to betrayal in canon either. I think her actions were eminently understandable.

Anyway, feeble justifications aside, I would also like to use this place to announce that I will be writing a sequel to this fanfic (or, to be more precise, you could say this is kind of like a prologue to the fic that'll come after it). It'll be called "The Adventures of Avatar Azula," and will be fairly significantly different from this one, in content and tone. I also won't wait until the entire thing's finished before posting chapters, for reasons that should become clear when you actually see it. As to when the first chapter will be ready? Well, I'm going to be busy with NaNoWriMo and RL stuff this month, so I imagine it'll be around the middle of December. Sorry.

A few other things: First, while I generally don't like trolling for reviews, I _would_ like to state that I highly appreciate all the reviews I get. But I appreciate even more the ones that contain constructive criticism. So if you didn't like some portions of this fic, please do tell me—we learn more from our failures than our successes, as they say.

Second, I wrote this without a beta, which was definitely to its detriment. If you'd be interested in being a beta for me, please PM or e-mail me. I would be willing to look over your stories in return.

Thanks to everyone who read this entire thing. I hope you enjoyed it!


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